LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



D0017EH3T^fl 






In Memoriam of 
CROSBY STUART NOYES 



The bridegrccm may forget the bride, 
Was made his wedded wife j/este'en ; 
The monarch may forget his crown 

That on his head an hour has been ; 
The mother may forget the child 

That smik-} sie sweetly on her knee ; 
But I'll remember thee, dear Moyes, 
And a' that thou hast done for me. 

—William Robertson Smith. 




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THE LIFE 



PUBLIC SERVICES 



HOEATIO SETMOUE: 



TOGETnF.R WITH A 



COMPLETE A:ND AUTHENTIC LIFE 



FRAISrCIS p. BLAIR, JR. 



JAMES D. McCABE, JR. 




NEW YORK: 

UNITED STATES PUBLISHING COMPANY, 411 BROOiiE Street. 

CINCINNATI, O. ; CHICAGO, ILL. ; ST. LOUIS, MO. ; ATLANTA, GA. 
JONES BROTHESS & CO. 

SAN rKANClSCO, CAL. : H. H. BANCROFT & CO. 

1868. 






,1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

JOHN F. TROW, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States foi ttie 

Southern District of New York. 






THE TROW A SMITH 

BOOK MANUFACTUKIN'G COMPANY 

46, 43 & SO Oreeoe Street, N, T. 






Who Love Constitutional Liberty, 
these histories 

OF 

THEIR BRAVEST DEFENDERS 
ARE DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 



When a citizen of the Republic is presented to the 
people for election by them to the highest public posi- 
tion in their gift, it is eminently proper that they 
should know the events of his previous life, in order 
that they may be enabled to form from them an intel- 
ligent opinion as to his qualifications for the position 
to which he aspires. Especially is it important that 
they should have this knowledge when it is proposed 
to place him at the head of the nation in a time like the 
present, when the country, almost on the brink of ruin, 
requires in its Chief Magistrate not only personal 
purity and political integrity, but also the highest and 
most profound wisdom, and the greatest and most 
unwavering firmness, — a wisdom which shall fore- 
see and provide against the dangers which threaten 
our institutions and prosperity, and a firmness which, 
resisting all the temptations of a selfish ambition, shall 
keep the Republic true to itself and to its God-given 
mission. 

The author believes that the Democratic party 
have presented such a man to the suffrages of the 



y 



VI PREFACE. 

country in their nomination of Mr. Seymour, and lie 
has endeavored to make this book a work Mdiich shall 
place within the reach of all, a brief, comprehensive, and 
convenient record of the services upon which the Demo- 
cracy base their estimate of their leader, in the coming 
contest. He has carefully refrained from intruding 
his own opinions upon the reader, and his aim has 
been to express the view taken by the majority of the 
Democratic party with regard to the questions herein 
discussed. 

It seemed but just to include in the book, a history 
of the life of the candidate of the party for the Vice- 
Presidency, as a work of this character would be incom- 
plete without it. The Vice-Presidency has become of 
late years, more prominent and more important in the 
estimation of the public than in times gone by, and 
the people have been taught that it is of vital conse- 
quence to choose their high officers in such a manner, 
that if, in the Providence of God, the country is at 
any time deprived of its Executive, his Constitutional 
successor may be a man capable of discharging the 
duties of the position. The Democratic party, fully 
realizing this, have chosen for the second place in the 
Government the man best fitted for it — one whose 
merits as a statesman are equalled only by his genius 
as a soldier, whose courage and integrity, both per- 
sonal and political, are without question, and whose 



^ 



PREFACE. Vll 

devotion to tlie great principles of the Constitution has 
been attested upon many a hard-fought field. 

With such leaders, and under the inspiration of 
such principles as are set forth in its platform, the 
Democratic party enters upon the present campaign, 
with a confidence which is the sure harbinger of success. 
It cannot fail, for, as its most eloquent historian'-' de- 
clares, " It represents the great principles of progress. 
It is onward and outward in its movements. It has a 
heart for action, and motives for a world. It consti- 
tutes the principle of difi'usion, and is to humanity 
what the centrifugat; force is to the revolving orbs of 
the universej What motion is to them, democracy is to 
principle. It is the soul of action. It conforms to 
the providence of God. It has confidence in man and 
an abiding reliance in his high destiny. It seeks the 
largest liberty, the greatest good, and the surest hap- 
piness. It aims to build up the great interests of the 
many, to the least detriment of the few. It remem-/ 
bers the past, without neglecting the present. It estab- 
lishes the present, without fearing to provide for the 
future. It cares for the weak, while it permits no 
injustice to the strong. It conquers the oppressor, 
and prepares the subjects of tyranny for freedom. 
It melts the bigot's heart to meekness, and reconciles 

* Kahum Capen. His '* History of Democracy of the United States," 
is £oon to be published. 



/- 



Vm PREFACE. 

his mind to knowledge. It dispels the clouds of 
ignorance and superstition, and prepares the people 
for instruction and self-respect. It adds wisdom to 
legislation, and improved judgment to government. 
It favors enterprise that yields a reward to the many, 
and an industry that is permanent It is the pioneer 
of humanity, the conservator of nations. It fails only 
i.vlien it ceases to he true to itself. Vox populi Vox 
Dei has proved to be both a proverb and a prediction."" 

Copious extracts from the letters, speeches and 
messages, of Governor Seymour and General Blair are 
given in this book, in order that the reader may 
judge them by their own words. Their declarations 
are plain and not susceptible of misinterpretation, 
and are believed to be more interesting: to the o-eneral 
reader than a mass of mere details could be. 

The book is given to the public with the hope 
that it may aid, in some degree, in bringing about, 
in November next, the election of men who desire 
the perpetuation and not the destruction of our Con- 
stitution and system of Government. 

J. D. McC, Jr. 

New Yoek, August 1st, 1868. 



/ 

\ 

J 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Seymour Family — Birth of Horatio Seymour — Childhood — Educa- 
tion — Decides to adopt the Law as his Profession — Early Studies — 
Entrance upon his Duties — Death of his Father and Father-in-Law — 
Early Political Life — Attaches himself to the Democratic Party — 
Elected to the Legislature of J^Tew York — His Services in that Body — 
His Success io Public Life — Elected Mayor of Utica — Reelected to 
the Legislature — Retires to Private Life and resumes the Prac- 
tice of the Law — The Erie Canal Question — dominated for Governor 
— Defeated— Elected Governor of New York — His Course as Gov- 
ernor Sustained by the Court of Appeals 17 

CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Seymour is Re-nominated for Governor by the Democracy — Is De- 
feated by Mr. Clark — Resumes the Practice of the Law — His interest 
in Public Affairs — His Marked Success as a Public Man — Services in 
Behalf of the Democratic Party — Attends the Charleston Convention 
— Declines to be a Candidate for the Presidency — Services during the 
Presidential Campaign of 18G0 — The Secession troubles — Mr. Sey- 
mour urges a Policy of Conciliation towards the South— The Demo-- 
cratic Convention at Tweddle Hall — Character of the Convention — 
Remarks of Judge Parker — Resolutions Adopted — Noble Speech of 
Governor Seymour — His views upon the Condition of the Country — 
A Plea for Justice and Humanity — A Patriotic Declaration — Mr. 
Seymour's Course respecting the Troubles — The "War — Mr. Seymour 
Retires to his Home — Efforts in Behalf of the Union Cause — Serves 
as a Member of the County Committee for raising and equipping 
troops — Summary of his Views respecting the War, as drawn from 
his Public Speeches 25 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

The War divides the people of the North into two great Parties — Politi- 
cal affairs in New York — Meeting of the Democratic Convention — 
Mr. Seymour Nominated for Governor — Platform of the New York 
Democracy — The Republicans Nominate General Wadsworth — Mr. 
Seymour is elected — Ilis Inaugural Address — Ilis Message to the 
Legislature — Review of the Condition of the Country — He Points 
out the Causes of the "War — Shows the Dangers which Threaten 
the Country — Denunciation of the Exc<esses of the Republicans — It 
is not too Late to Save the Union — ^Errors of the Administration — 
Danger to be Apprehended from a Consolidated Government — Out- 
rages Practiced upon the People — Mart'al Law — The Union is In- 
dissoluble — How it may be Saved — Eloquent Peroration — Trouble in 
the Legislature — A dignified Message — Governor Seymour's Speech in 
New York, July 4th, 1863 — Review of the State of the Country — 
Eloquent Appeal for Mercy and Conciliation — Comments upon the 
Address — Mr. Seymour's Wisdom and Far-sightedness — His Candor 
and Intrepidity the best proofs of his Patriotism 39 



CHAPTER IV. 

Invasion of Pennsylvania by General Lee — Alarm in the North — Excite- 
ment in New York — The Government Calls for Troops from the 
Border States — Tlie President asks New York for aid — Prompt 
Reply of Governor Seymour— Orders of the State Authorities — Pa- 
triotic Response of the Troops — Aid sent to the Border — Statement 
of Troops sent by New York — Energy of Governor Seymour — Re- 
publican Testimony on this point — Messages from the Government 
— The President and Secretary of War thank Governor Seymour 
for the Prompt Assistance given by him — Testimony of Mr. Lincoln — 
The Official Correspondence between the State and Federal Author- 
ities — Incontestible Proofs — Statement of the " Pliiladolphia Age " — 
Mr. Seymour Triumphantly Vindicated by his own acts from the 
Calumnies of his Enemies 59 



CHAPTER V. 

A Brief History of the Conscription— The System Opposed to the Spirit 
of the Constitution — Congress Passes a Conscription Law — Feeling 



CONTENTS. XI 

of tlie People of the Union upon the Subject — Unjustifiable Course 
of the Administration Towards the Oi p'lnents of its Policy— No 
Necessity for a Draf; — Views of the Democratic Party as Stated by 
the "Kew York World" — Tiie L:i\v to be Tested in the Courts — The 
Governn.ent Decides to Enfurce liie Draft in New York City during 
tlie Absence of tlie Si ate Troops — Notice by the Pruvost- Marshal — 
Indignation of the Citizens — The Drafc Begun — The First Day's 
Proceedings — Hostility of the Working Men to the Draft — Secret 
Meetings in the Laboring Districts — Ecms ance Determined upon — 
Monday, July 13th — Resumption of the Draft — The First Blow — 
Attack upon, and Destruction of the Provost-Marshal's Office — The 
Riot Begun — Heroism of the Firemen — Outrages of the Mob — De- 
fenceless Condition of the City — Weakness of the Authorities — The 
Call for Troops— Increase of tlie Troubles — The Rioters Dt-feat the 
U. S. Marines — Fight on Tiiird Avenue — Burning of the Orphan 
Asylum — Attack on the State Armory — Gallant Defence by the 
Police — Burning of Buildings by the Mob — Attack on the '' Tribune " 
Office — Rioters Defeated by the Police — Outrages upon the Negroes 
— Heroic Conduct of the Police — Arrival of Governor Seymour in the 
Citj- — His Proclamation to the Rioters — He Declares the City in a 
State of Insin-rection — Progress of the Riot — Attack on the Negro 
Quarters — Murder of Colonel O'Brien — Arrival of Troops — The 
Rioters Defeated by the Military — The State Troops Ordered Home — 
Speech of Governor Seymour to the Crowd in the Park — Effect of 
the Speech — Misrepresentations by the Republican Press — Disin- 
genuousness of the " Albany Evening Journal " — Course of Arch- 
bishop Hughes — His Speech — Comments — Return of the State 
Troops — The Riot put down — Slanders of the Republican Party — 
Governor Seymour's Course Vindicated To 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Draft Suspended in New York City — Injustice of the Government to 
New York — Governor Seymour Calls the Attention of the President 
to the Inequality in the Apportionment of Conscripts — He Asks that 
the Draft be Suspended Temporarily in the State — Justice of his 
Demand — Reply of the President — A Weak Argument — Refuses to 
Suspend the Draft— Correspondence between the Governor and the 
President — Preparations for Resuming the Draft in New Y^ork City 
and Brooklyn — Letter of General Dix to the Governor — Correspond- 



/"' 



Xll CONTENTS. 

ence between Governor Seymour and General Dix — Bold and In- 
dependent Course of the Governor — He Maintains the Independence 
■ of his State, and fastens the Odium and Responsibility of the Draft 
upon the Administration — Proclamation by the Governor— Governor 
Seymour's Course Dictateil by an Exalted Patriotism — Review of his 
Acts— His Course Sustained by the Commission Appointed by the 
"War Department — He Receives the Thanks of the Legislature — ■ 
Letter Relating to the Enlistment of Colored Troops 113 

CHAPTER VII. 

Meeting of the Democratic Convention of the State — Pledges its Support 
to the Government in all Lawful Measures for bringing the War to 
a Successful Close — Mass Meeting at Albany to Consider tlie Un- 
lawful Arrest of Mr. Vallandigham — Letter of the Governor — Pro- 
ceedings of the Meeting — Correspondence of the Committee with the 
President — Meetings throughout the State — Course of Governor 
Seymour Indorsed by all — Democratic Meeting at Syracuse — Elo- 
quent Speech of Governor Seymour — A Plain Statement of Facts — 
Meeting of the Legislature — The Governor's Message — Review of the 
Draft, and his Action therein — Statement of his action during the 
Riots — Eloquent Appeal for the Union — Efforts of the Governor 
in Behalf of the Credit of the State— His Success Ibo 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

The Bogus Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln — Deception Practiced upon Dem- 
ocratic Newspapers — Suppression of the ""World" and "Journal of 
Commerce " — Highhanded Measures of the Administration — Gov- 
ernor Seymour's Action in the Case — His Instructions to the District 
Attorney — Action in the Case — Refusal of the Grand Jury to do its 
Duty — The Governor's Instructions to Mr. Hall — Proceedings against 
General Dix and his Officers — Trial of the Case before Judge Russell 
— Decision of the Court — The Sequel — Meeting of the Chicago Con- 
vention — Mr. Seymour chosen President of tliat Body — His Services 
during the Presidential Campaign — lie Procures the Passage of a 
Law for Collecting the Votes of the State Troops in the Field- 
Statement of the Provisions of this Law — Mr. Seymour again nom- 
inated fir Governor by the Democratic State Convention — His Cir- 
cular to the Officers of the New York Troops in the Federal Service 



n 



^'^. CONTENTS. . XUl 

— nis Anxiety fur a Fair election — Measures on the part of the Gov- 
ernment to Control the Election — The Keign of Terror — Proclama- 
tion by the Governor — The Election — How the Adminietration Car- 
ried it — Mr. Seymour Defeated by Mr. Fenton 171 



CHAPTER IX. 

Efforts of the Governor to Secure a Fair Vote in the Army — Alleged 
Fraud on the part of State Agents — Arrest of Ferry and Donohue — 
They are Tried and Sentenced by a Military Commission — Arrest of 
Colonel North and others — They are imprisoned in the Old Capitol — 
The Governor Resolves to Defend their Rights as Citizens of New 
York — Commissioners sent to Washington — His Letter of Instruc- 
tions — Action of the Commissioners — Their Interview with th« Sec- 
retary of War — Their first Requests Complied with — They Visit the 
Prisoners — Inhuman Treatment of its Prisoners by the Administra- 
tion — No Charges made against them — The Letter of the Commis- 
sioners to the Secretary of War — Statement of the Case — The Gov- 
ernment witliout Jurisdiction in the matter — Reply of the War De- 
partment — The Sovereignty of New York Outraged by the Admin- 
istration — Departure of the Commissioners — Persecution of Colonel 
North and his Companions — Their Acquittal and Subsequent cap- 
tivity — Slanders of the Republicans upon Governor Seymour — Their 
Shallowness — Mr. Seymour Retires to Private Life — The Democratic 
State Convention — Tribute to President Johnson — Mr. Seymour's 
Speech at Cooper Institute in June, 1868 — A Magnificent Effort — 
Review and Denunciation of the Eepublican Policy — The Radicals 
Exposed to tlie Public Scorn 189 

' CHAPTER X. 

The National Democratic Convention of 1868 — Arrival of Delegates in 
New York — Scenes in the City — Preparations for the Convention — 
Review of the Prospects of Candidates— Noble Letter from Mr. 
Pendleton— Mr. Seymour Declines to be a Candidate — The " New 
York Citizen " on Mr. Seymour — Patriotism of the Pendleton Men — 
The Convention — The North and Suuth Renew the'r old Harmony 
— Organization of the Convention— Mr. Seymour Chosen its Pres- 
ident — Reccpti<in by the Cnnvontion — His Speech — A Scathing Re- 
view of Radicalism — Adoption of the Platform — Eloquent Statement 



V 




XIV CONTENTS. 

of the Principles of the Party — Adoption of the " Two-Thirds Paile " 
— The Koiiiination? — Balloting; — A "Dead-Lock" — Witlidrawal of 
Mr. PendJeton — His Friends Insist upon the Nomination of Governor 
Seymour — He Declines the Honor — Sc/ne in the Convention — Mr. 
Seymour is compelled to Submit to the Will of the Party — Enthusi- 
asm — lie is Declared the Unanimous Choice of the Convention for 
the Presidency — Nomination of General Blair for the Vice-Pres- 
idency — Statement of the Ballots for President — Final Adjournment 
of the Convention 233 

CHAPTER XI. 

Mr. Seymour Decides to Accept the Nomination conferred upon him by 
the Convention — The Motives of his Action — Formal Tender of the 
Nominatiin — Scene in Tammany Hall — Speech of General Morgan 
— Reply of Mr. Seymour — Enthusiesm — Meeting in Fourteenth 
Street — Speech of Mr. Seymour — How the News was received 
throughout the Country — Comments of the Press — Tributes from 
Eepublicans — Governor Seymour returns Home — Scenes along the 
Eoute — Arrival in Utica — His Welcome Home — An overwhelming 
Demonstration — His Speech at Ulica — Retires to his Home— His 
Letter of Acceptance 269 



THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



HORATIO SEYMOUR. 



THE LIFE 



PUBLIC SERVICES 

or 

HORATIO SEYMOUR. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Seymour Family — Birth of Horatio Seymonr — Childhood — Educa- 
tion — Decides to adopt the Law as his Profession — Early Studies — 
Entrance upon his Duties — Death of his Father, and Father-in-Law — 
Early Political Life — Attaches himself to the Democratic Party — 
Elected to the Legislature of New York — His Services in that Body — 
His Success in Public Life — Elected Mayor of Utica — Reelected to 
the Legislature — Retires to Private Life, and resumes the Practice 
of the Law — The Erie Canal Question — Nominated for Governor — 
Defeated — Elected Governor of New York — His course as Governor, 
sustained by the Court of Appeals. 

Among the original settlers of Connecticut, was one 
named Ricliard Seymour, a just, God-fearing man, who, 
for conscience-sake, followed the pious Hooker through 
the untracked forest, to found for himself and his pos- 
terity a home in which they could worship God after 
the manner of their fathers, with none to molest or 
make them afraid. The descendants of this good man 
lived at Hartford, in the old homestead, until Moses 
Seymour, the fourth in descent from the founder of the 
family, grew to manhood. Moses Seymour removed 



18 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

to Litchfield, which he represented for seventeen years 
in the Legislature of Connecticut. He served gal- 
lantly through the Revolution, as a Major in the 
Connecticut line, and established a high reputation 
for bravery, efficiency, and ability. He married a 
daughter of Colonel Marsh, of Connecticut, a distin- 
guished officer of the Continental Army, and by her had 
five sons. The eldest of these sons, Henry Seymour, 
was born in 1780, and upon attaining his majority, re- 
moved to Onondaga County, in the State of New York. 
He took a leading part in the politics of the day, and 
was known as a man of fine abilities and unblemished 
integrity. He served for several terms in the State 
Legislature, and was for many years Canal Commis- 
sioner. He also acquired considerable j)roperty, which 
he left to his children. He was the father of the sub- 
ject of this memoir. 

Horatio Seymour was born at Pompey, Onondaga 
Count}^, New York, in the year 1811. He received a 
liberal and thorough education in the best schools and 
academies of the State. No pains were spared by his 
parents to fit him for taking a prominent position in 
public affairs, to which career he seems to have been 
devoted from his childhood ; and their effiarts met with 
a ready and earnest cooperation on his part. He was 
a close and diligent student, and being possessed of 
fine natural abilities, took at once and maintained a 
leading position in his class. He was the best scholar 
and the readiest speaker in his classes, and from the 
first won the esteem and confidence of his com- 
panions. 



EARLY MANHOOD. 19 

Young Seymour at an early day decided to adopt 
the law as his profession, and his studies were all 
shaped with a view to prepare him for it. Upon the 
close of his collegiate course, he commenced the study 
of the law, which he pursued with vigor and industry. 
So successful was he in his efforts, that he was ad- 
mitted to the bar when only a little more than twenty 
years old. He at once entered upon the practice of ^' 
his profession in the city of Utica. The prospect before 
him was very flattering, and he had every reason to 
expect an immediate and brilliant success ; but the 
death of his father, occurring about this period, com- 
pelled him to give the greater portion of his time to 
the task of settling the large and somewhat compli- 
cated estate which Henry Seymour left behind him. 
These duties were engrossing and numerous. Mr. 
John K. Bleecker, his wife's father, died some time 
after this, leaving a large estate, to the settlement 
of which Mr. Seymour devoted much time. He paid 
little attention to his profession, preferring to give 
his time to the management of his estate, which 
has, under his care, become one of the finest in 
New York. Mr. Seymour, meanwhile, kept steadily 
in view the great career he had marked out for 
himself; and realizing that he who would lead men 
must know man, pursued a thorough and systematic 
course of study, and after the close of the duties re- 
ferred to above, again entered upon the practice of his 
profession. 

In his earlier years he took very little active interest 
in political affairs, though liis sympathies, tastes, and 



20 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

convictions led him to vote with the Democratic party, 
to which his family had been attached for several gen- 
erations. His social position, his high personal char- 
acter, and his acknowledged abilities, made him a 
valuable acquisition to the party, and efforts were not 
wanting on the part of its leaders to induce him to 
enter actively into political life. For some years he 
steadily refused to do this, but at length, in the fall of 
1842, when not quite thirty-one years of age, he con- 
sented to accept the Democratic nomination for mem- 
ber of the Assembly, in the State Legislature. At 
this time the Whigs had a decided majority in Oneida, 
and the Democrats had for some years been unsuccess- 
ful in their efforts, but notwithstanding this, Mr. Sey- 
mour was elected by a handsome majority, his per- 
sonal popularity having dra's^^l off a large share of the 
Whig vote from the candidate of that party. 

As was to be expected, Mr. SejTuour took a com- 
manding position in the Legislature. The Assembly 
at that day, Avas no insignificant body. It contained, 
besides Mr. Seymour, such men as John A. Dix, 
Michael Hoffman, David R. Floyd Jones, George R. 
Davis, Lemuel Stetson, and Calvin T. Hulburd. The 
session was one of the most memorable in the history 
of New York, and the debates were marked by a rare 
displa}^ of ability and eloquence. The Democrats were 
largely in the ascendency in both branches of the Leg- 
islature, and the measures of the session were import- 
ant. The great question of the day was Michael Hoff- 
man's famous bill for restoring the financial credit of 
the State, which was supported and passed by tlie entire 



ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATUEE. 21 

strength of the Democracy. Mr. Seymour engaged 
actively in the labors of the session, speaking often and 
with gi'eat eloquence and force, and contributed in a 
marked degree to the character and success of the leg- 
islation. He began the session with a fine local repu- 
tation, but when it closed he had made himself known 
and honored all over the State. His success had been 
even greater than his warmest friends had predicted, 
and such as very few men have achieved during their 
first session. 

The next spring Mr. Seymour was elected Mayor 
of Utica. The Whigs made strenuous efforts to de- 
feat him, and the canvass was a warm one, but he was 
elected by a considerable majority. 

In the fall of 1843, he was again elected a member 
of the Lower House of the Legislature, to which he was 
returned again in 1844, and in 1845. The session of 
1844 was one which will be long remembered in New 
York. The administration of Governor Bouck met 
with a sharp oj^position in the Legislature, and this 
was the cause of many exciting and skilful debates. 
In these discussions Mr. Seymour was pitted against 
the veteran Michael Hoffman, the brilliant leader of 
the Assembly, and a most formidable antagonist, but 
he fought him •with such skill and effect as to win for 
himself the enthusiastic praise of his political associates, 
and the unstinted admiration of his constituents. Mr. 
Polk having been elected to the Presidency by a tri- 
umphant Democracy in 1844, the session of 1845 was 
more harmonious. At this session Mr. Seymour Avas 
nominated by his friends for the post of Speaker of the 



22 LIFE OF nOEATIO SEYMOrR. 

Lower House of the Legislature, and after a sharp con- 
test, in which he came near being defeated in conse- 
quence of some serious defections in his own party, Avas 
elected hy a decisive majority. It was during this ses- 
sion that Daniel S. Dickinson was elected to the United 
States Senate, and to this election Mr. Seymour con- 
tributed in a very great degree, urging the choice of 
Mr. Dickinson, and exerting his entire influence in 
favor of it. When the question of calling a Convention 
to amend the Constitution of the State was brought up, 
he spoke earnestly and eloquently in favor of it, but voted 
against the bill for that purpose, as its provisions did 
not meet with his approval 

At the end of this session, Mr. Seymour retired to 
private life, and for the next five years devoted him- 
self to his personal affairs. He took little or no part 
in public matters, devoting himself exclusively to his 
private business, taking care, however, to keep himself 
well informed of the drift of political events. He 
extended the circle of his acquaintance in other 
parts of the State, the fame which he had acquired in 
the Legislature having made him deservedly popular 
with the people everywhere. 

In 1850, he returned to public life. In that year, 
the Legislature of New York passed a bill for the en- 
largement and improvement of the Erie Canal, and 
for that purpose appropriated certain revenues of the 
State, in direct violation of the provisions of the Con- 
stitution. This measure brought Mr. Seymour ag£Jn 
into the field, and was opposed and denounced by him 
with more than his usual vigor and eloquence. His 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. 23 

opposition to it was so marked and decided, that the 
Democracy solicited him to become their candidate for 
Governor of the State. He accepted the nomination, 
and at once entered upon the contest. His opponent 
.. was Mr. Washington Hunt, a gentleman of great abil- 
ity and popularity. The election resulted as follows : 

For Mr. Hunt, .... 214,614 votes. 
For Mr. Seymour, . . . 214,352 " 

Majority for Mr. Hunt, . 262 votes. 

The fact that the entire Democratic ticket, with the 
exception of Mr. Seymour, was elected, was supposed 
by many to be, in a political sense, very damaging 
to him. That this view of the case was not cor- 
rect, however, is shown by the sequel. In 1852, in 
spite of his defeat in 1850, Mr. Seymour was again 
the nominee of his party, and was this time opposed 
again by Governor Hunt, the Whig candidate, and 
also by Minthorne Tompkins, the Free Soil candidate. 
' The canvass was a very exciting one, and was con- 
ducted with great vigor and ability by all parties. 
The election resulted as follows : 

For Mr. Seymour, . . . . 264,121 votes. 

For Mr. Hunt, 239,736 " 

For Mr. Tompkins, .... 19,299 " 

^ Seymour's majority over Hunt, 24,385 " 

i Seymour's majority over Hunt 

and Tompkins, 5,086 " 

This splendid victory was due, in a great measure, 
to Mr. Seymour's personal popularity, and at once 



^ 



24 LIFE OP HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

silenced all those who had predicted evil for him from 
his defeat in the previous canvass. His administra- 
tion as Governor, now that the heat and prejudice of 
the times has worn away, is admitted on all sides to 
have been marked by ability, discretion, and sound 
judgment. The chief measure of it was his veto of 
the "Maine Liquor Law," which had passed both 
Houses of the Legislature. His course was based 
upon his conviction that the Legislature had no power 
to pass sumptuary laws, and his judgment convinced 
him that such a law would be productive of great 
trouble in the State, and that it would ultimately be 
repealed by the people. His conduct occasioned con- 
siderable surprise and feeling, but the course of the 
Governor has since been amply vindicated by a formal 
decision of the Court of Appeals that the Legislature 
has no power to enact such a law. 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Seymour is Re-nominated for Governor hj the Democracy — Is De- 
feated by Mr. CI irk — Resumes the Practice of the Law — His Inter- 
est in Bublic Affairs — His Marked Success as a Public Man — Servicea 
in behalf of the Democratic Party — Attends the Charleston Conven- 
tion — Declines to be a Candidate for the Presidency — Services dur- 
ing the Presidential Campaign of 1860 — The Secession Troubles — 
Mr. Seymour urges a Policy of Conciliation towards the South — 
The Democratic Convention at Tweddle Hall — Character of the 
Convention — Remarks of Judge Parker — Resolutions Adopted — No- 
ble Speech of Gov. Seymour — His Views upon the Condition of the 
Country — A Plea for Justice and Humanity — A Patriotic Declaration 
— Mr. Seymour's Course Respecting the Troubles — The War — Mr. 
Seymour Retires to his home — Efforts in Behalf of the Union Cause 
— Serves as a Member of the County Committee for Raising and 
Equipping Troops — Summary of his Views Respecting the "War, as 
drawn from his Public Speeches. 

In 1854, Mr. Seymour was nominated by his party 
for reelection to the Gubernatorial Chair. This time 
there were four candidates in the field : Mr. Seymour, 
the regular Democratic nominee, Myron G. Clark, Re- 
publican, Daniel Ullman, American, or Know Noth- 
ing, and Greene C. Bronson, " Hard-Shell Democrat." 
This unfortunate "split" in the Democratic party 
caused its defeat. The election resulted as follows : 
For Mr. Clark, .... 156,804 votes. 
For Mr. Seymour, 



For Mr. Ullman, . 
For Mr. Bronson, 
Mr. Clark's majority 
Mr. Seymour, . 



156,495 

122,282 
33,850 



over 



26 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

After this defeat, Mr. Seymour returned to his 
home in the city of Utica. Though he did not pre- 
sent himself again for some years as a candidate for 
office, he continued to take a deep interest in the wel- 
fare of the country and the Democratic party. He was 
regularly sent as a delegate to the State and National 
Conventions of the party, in which his influence was 
very great. His high qualities of mind and heart had 
drawn to him at the outset of his political career a band 
of devoted friends and admirers, and every year only 
served to increase their numbers, imtil at length he 
came to be regarded as the foremost man of his party 
in his own State, and one of the purest and most gifted 
leaders of that party in the Union. His views were 
always sought on all the great questions of the day, 
and his voice was powerful in the Councils of the 
Democracy. 

In the Convention of 18 GO, at Charleston, when it 
became evident that the contest between the friends of 
Mr. Douo:las and those of Mr. Breckenrid^-e could not 
be settled amicably, Mr. Seymour's name was presented 
by the Southern delegates, with the hope that the two 
wings of the party would unite upon him as a compro- 
mise. The measure might have been crowned with 
success, but being unwilling to relinquish the retire- 
ment of his home for the trials of office, Mr. Se}-mour 
requested his friends to withdraw his name. 

During the campaign of 1860 Mr. Seymour sup- 
ported the regular Democratic ticket, and when the 
secession movement began at once exerted himself to 
procure a peaceful settlement of the difficulty. He 



THE SECESSION TROUBLES. 27 

knew what untold misery a civil war would bring upon 
the land, and he sought by every means in his power 
to avert it. Though he did not think secession was 
the proper course for the South to pursue, he believed 
that section had just cause for complaint, and that her 
grievances demanded redress. In view of the excited 
condition of both sections, however, and the indisposi- 
tion of either to yield its claims, he thought that the 
only possible settlement of the troubles lay in a com- 
promise between the sections, and he exerted himself 
to bring about such a measure. His whole eifort was 
to prevent the war, and though he may have erred in 
some of his views respecting the questions at issue, the 
people of the country will always remember with grati- 
tude the manly efforts he made to save them from the 
horrors of the late war. In common with the whole 
Democratic party of the North, he urged the adoption 
of measures of conciliation and peace. His efforts 
were in vain, however. The extremists of the North 
and South applied themselves diligently to the task of 
bringing on the war, and the labors of the Conservative 
men of the country were defeated. 

While matters were in this condition the Democrat- 
ic State Central Committee of New York issued a call 
for a Convention, of four delegates from each Assem- 
bly district, to be held at Albany on the 31st of Jan- 
uary, 1861, for the purpose of considering the state 
of affairs throughout the country. Mr. Seymour was 
sent to this body as a delegate from Utica. 

The Convention met at Tweddle Hall, in Albany, 
on the day appointed. It was the most imposing and 



28 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

brilliant political body that ever assembled in the State. 
Thirty of the delegates had held seats in Congress, 
while one (Gov. Seymour) had been Governor of the 
State, and two others the nominees of the party for 
that high office. Nor was the Convention strictly a 
" Democratic " body, though called as such. Several 
of its best members had been leading Whigs, and some 
were " Americans." All had been drawn together by 
the danger which threatened the country, and they met 
wdth a solemn sense of the obligations which rested upon 
them, to give prudent and wise counsel, and to do noth- 
ing which should increase the peril of the nation. San- 
ford E. Church called the Convention to order, as tem- 
porary Chairman, and a permanent organization was 
speedily effected by the election of Judge Amasa J. 
Parker, of Albany, as President. Judge Parker, on 
taking the chair, said : 

" This Convention has been called with no view to 
mere party objects. It looks only to the great interests 
of State. We meet here as conservative and repre- 
sentative men, who have differed among ourselves as to 
measures of governmental policy, ready, all of them, I 
trust, to sacrifice such differences upon the altar of our 
common country. He can be no true patriot who is 
not ready to yield his own prejudices, to surrender a 
favorite theory, and to clip even from his own party 
platform, Mdiere such omission may save his country 
from ruin otherwise inevitable. 

"The people of this State demand the peaceful 
settlement of the questions that have led to disunion. 
They have a right to insist that there sliali be concilia- 



THE CONVENTION AT ALBANY. 29 

tion, concession, compromise. Wliile yet the pillars 
of our political temple lie scattered on the ground, let 
them be used to reconstruct the edifice. The popular 
sentiment is daily gathering strength, and will over- 
whelm in its progress alike, those who seek to stem it 
on the frail plank of party platforms and those who 
labor to pervert it to mere party advantage." 

This address, which clearly and simply states the 
object of the Convention and the animus of its mem- 
bers, was greeted with cheers. The Convention was 
addressed by Governor Seymour, the venerable ex- 
Chancellor Walworth, and others, and unanimously 
adopted the following resolutions as the expression of 
its views respecting the national troubles: 

" I. Resolved^ That the cj'isis into which the coun- 
try has been thrown by the conflict of sectional pas- 
sions, and which has already resulted in the declared 
secession of six States, and the threatened cooperation 
of nearly all the other States of the South with them, 
the Seizure of Government property and of the Federal 
defences — the confronting of the disaffected States and 
of the Federal Government in the attitude and with the 
armament of Civil War — is of such a nature as, raisins; 
all patriotic citizens above the considerations of party, 
should impel them to the sacrifices by which alone 
these calamities may be averted or their further pro- 
gress arrested. 

" II. Re-solved^ That, in the opinion of this Con- 
vention, the worst and most ineffective argument that 
can be addressed by the Confederacy or its adhering 
members to the seceding States, is Civil War. Civil 



30 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

war will not restore the TJnion^ hut will defeat forever^ 
its reconstruction. 

" III. Mesolved,, That we can look for the restora- 
tion of the Union, and the reinvigoration of the Con- 
stitution, only to the continuance of that spirit of concil- 
■ iation and concession in which they were founded ; and 
that there is nothing in the nature of pending difficul- 
ties which does not render it proper to adjust them by 
compromises such as, by the practice of our Govern- 
ment, have been resorted to in the settlement of dis- 
puted claims, even with foreign nations. That while 
our Government, believing its title to the territories in 
the northeastern and northwestern portions of the 
Union, which were given up to Great Britain, was 
clear and unquestionable, yet for the purpose of saving 
the people from the evils of war, surrendered a portion 
of our original territory, and also a part of the Louisi- 
ana purchase, exceeding in value all the domain 
which the South demands, in joint occupation, having 
conceded thus much to a foreign nation in the interest 
of peace — it would be monstrous to refuse to settle 
claims between the people of our 0"\\ti land, and avert 
destruction from our common country by a similar 
compromise. 

"IV. Hesolved^ That whereas it is obvious that 
the dissolution of this Union can only be prevented by 
the adoption of a policy which shall be satisfactoiy to 
the Border States, it is our duty to support them in 
their patriotic efforts to adjust those controversies. 
And inasmuch as these questions grow out of the ac- 
quisition of territories not provided for by the Constitu- 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. 31 

tion, and in regard to whicli the people of the South 
believe they are entitled to a joint occupancy, in person 
and property, under the Constitution, and by the decis- 
ion of the Courts, while on the other hand, the dom- 
inant party at the North claim that they should be ex- 
cluded therefrom, it is eminently fit that we should 
listen to the appeals of loyal men in the Border States, 
to dispose of this question by one of those measures of 
compromise in the spirit of which the Constitution was 
founded, and by which all territorial questions have 
from time to time been settled. 

" V. Resolved^ That inasmuch as the political con- 
vulsions which threaten the destruction of the coun- 
try, were not contemplated at the time of the last elec- 
tion, and their continuance will be more disastrous to 
the interests of our citizens, involving the ruin of our 
commercial and laboring classes, and possibly carrying 
the desolation of civil war into the homes of our citi- 
zens, we hold that it is their right to be heard in regard 
to the adjustment of these difficulties, (which, in our 
opinion, can at present best be settled by the adoption 
of the Crittenden proposition or some other measure 
acceptable to the Border States,) and that a Committee 
of five be appointed, to prej)are, in behalf of this Con- 
vention, a suitable memorial to the Leo;islature, uro-ino; 
them to submit the Crittenden Compromise to a vote 
of the electors of the State, at the earliest practicable 
day." 

Mr. Seymour spoke at length in support of these 
resolutions. After showing clearly and irrefutably 
that the Republican party, and especially their leaders 



32 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

in Congress, were responsible for the existing troubles, 
he said: 

" What spectacle do -we present to-day ? Already 
six States liave withdrawn from this confederacy. 
Revolution has actually begun. The term ' secession ' 
divests it of none of its terrors, nor do arguments to 
prove secession inconsistent with our Constitution stay 
its progress, or mitigate its evils. All virtue, patriot- 
ism, and intelligence, seem to have fled from our 
National Capitol ; it has been well likened to the con- 
flagration of an asylum for madmen — some look on 
wdth idiotic imbecility ; some in sullen silence ; and 
some scatter the firebrands which consume the fabric 
above them, and bring upon all a common destruction. 
Is there one revolting aspect in this scene which has 
not its parallel at the Caj^itol of your country ? Do 
you not see there the senseless imbecility, the garru- 
lous idiocy, the maddened rage, displayed with regard 
to petty personal passions and party purposes, while 
the glory, the honor, and the safety of the country are 
all forgotten ? The same pervading fanaticism has 
brought evil upon all the institutions of our land. Our 
churches are torn asunder and desecrated to partisan 
purposes. The wrongs of our local legislation, the 
growing burdens of debt and taxation, the gradual 
destruction of the African in the Free States, which is 
marked by each recurring census, are all due to the 
neglect of our own duties, caused by the complete absorp- 
tion of the public mind by a senseless, unreasoning 
fanaticism. The agitation of the question of Slavery 
has thus far brought greater social, moral, and legisla- 



A NOBLE SPEECH. 33 

tive evils upon the people of the free States than it has 
upon the institutions of those against whom it has 
been excited. The wisdom of Franklin stamped upon 
the first coin issued by our government, the wise motto, 
' Mind your business ! ' The violation of this homely 
proverb, which lies at the foundation of the doctrines 
of local rights, has, thus far, proved more hurtful to 
the meddlers in the affairs of others than to those against 
whom this pragmatic action is directed." 

He then proceeded to show that the North had 
always received the greater share in the division of the 
Territory of the Union, and that the claims of the 
South were just and reasonable. He argued that the 
differences between the sections ought to be settled by 
a compromise — and declared that there were but two 
alternatives, compromise or civil war. Said he : 

"We are advised by the conservative States of 
Virginia and Kentucky, that, if force is to be used, it 
must be exerted against the united South. It would 
be an act of folly and madness, in entering upon this 
contest, to underrate our opponents, and thus subject 
ourselves to the disgrace of defeat in an inglorious war- 
fare. Let us also see if successful coercion by the 
North is less revolutionary than successful secession 
by the South. Shall we prevent revolution by being 
foremost in overthrowing the principles of our Govern- 
ment, and all that makes it valuable to our people, and 
distinguishes it among the nations of the earth ? " 

Mr. Seymour then spoke of the valor and sagacity 
of the Southern people and leaders — showing that they 
were firm in their determination to maintain their 
3 



34 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

rights out of tlie Union, if tliey could not do so within 
it ; he referred to the extent and nature of the South- 
ern coast line, demonstrating the impossibility of estab- 
lishing a 'perfect blockade ; and expressed his fear that 
war would bring ruin to the North as well as to the 
South, and that the two sections would have to com- 
promise in the end. He said : "The question is simply 
this — ' Shall we have compromise after war, or com- 
promise ivitliout war ? ' " 

A compromise, he declared, was not needed to 
pacify the States that had already withdrawn from 
the Union ; but for the purpose of encouraging and 
strengthening the hands of the loyal men in the Border 
States, by which alone those States could be kept 
faithful to the Union. He said : 

" Let us take care that ive do not mistake passion 
and prejudice and partisan purposes for principle. The 
cry of ' no compromise ' is false in morals ; it is treason 
to the spirit of the Constitution ; it is infidelity in 
religion — the cross itself is a compromise, and is plead- 
ed by many who refuse all charity to their fellow- 
citizens. It is the vital principle of social existence ; 
it unites the family circle ; it sustains the church, and 
upholds nationalities. 

" But the Republicans complain that, having won 
a victory, we ask tliem to surrender its fruits. We do 
not wish them to give up any political advantage. We 
urge measures which are demanded by the honor and 
the safety of our Union. Can it be that they are less 
concerned than we are ? Will they admit that they 
have interests antaironistic to those of the whole com- 



POSITION OF ME. SEYMOUR. 35 

monwealth ? Are tliey making sacrifices, when they 
do that which is required by the common welfare ? " 

This speech was bitterly denounced by those who 
were bent upon driving the country into war, as a 
" surrender to rebels and traitors ; " but it is certainly 
no discredit to Governor Seymour that he desired to 
secure the preservation of the Union by means similar 
to those adopted by our forefathers for its creation. In 
no part of the speech did he advocate a surrender of 
the Union. On the contrary, his whole soul was given 
to the effort to save it ; and that he preferred peace to 
war is a decided proof of that high statesmanship for 
which he has always been distinguished. He was a 
Union man in the best sense of the term. He soucrht 
to perpetuate a true Union of the States, and to avoid 
a resort to the sword, by which the North could do no 
more than reduce the South to the condition of a con- 
quered province ; and the result of the war has proved 
the soundness and wisdom of his views, for, after a 
lapse of nearly. eight years, the Union is as imperfect 
to-day as it Avas wdien he uttered the words w^e have 
quoted. 

As w'e have said, he earnestly desired peace ; but 
the war came in spite of him. He was then called 
upon to decide whether he would cast his lot with the 
Union or the South. It cost him nothing to make 
this decision. His whole sympathy was with the 
Union, and he took his stand w'ith that great party 
which gave McClellan, Dix, McClernand, Hancock, 
Buell, Meade, and even Grant, himself, wdth the thou- 
sands of gallant men who followed them, to support 



36 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of the War. He gave this support, hoAvever, for the 
preservation and restoration of the Union ; and the 
fact that he could not and did not sanction the usur- 
pations and despotism of the Administration during 
the four years of the War, does not detract from his 
merits as a consistent and faithful Union man. 

At the beginning of the war he returned to Utica, 
and at once proceeded to render to the Government 
such aid as lay in his power in its efforts " to suppress 
the rebellion." He was Chairman of the War Com- 
mittee in his County, and exerted himself actively in 
equipping and forwarding volunteers to Washing- 
ton. 

Some time after this, Mr. Seymour, at a public 
meeting in Utica, addressed his fellow citizens at some 
length uj)on the state of the country, and, among 
other things, said : 

" We owe our duties to our Government. We must 
strengthen our armies and furnish it with means to 
conduct this war to a successful issue. The day has 
gone by for efforts to avert it. When the American 
people refuse to live together in the spirit of the Con- 
stitution, when they reject all adjustment of contro- 
versies they make the sword the only arbiter. Con- 
sistency demands that we who strove to avert the war 
should now strive to make it productive of those ends 
which we sought to reach by peaceful measures. All 
theories of Government, that of centralization, or that 
of State rights, requires that we should stand hij tlte 
standard of our Government and the standards of our 
State in the battle-field^'' 



PATRIOTIC VIEWS. 37 

In January, 1862, he said at the meeting of the 
" State Military Association :" 

" We denounce the rehellion as most iciclied hecaiise 
it ivages war against the hest Government the world has 
ever seen. Keinember there is guilt in negligence as 
well as in disobedience, and there is danger, too. We 
complain that the arms of the General Government 
were heretofore unequally distributed. This Avas 
owing in part to the treasonable purposes of officials, 
but it is due in part to our own neglect of our consti- 
tutional duties. Our enrolled militia should count 
more than five hundred thousand, but they do not ex- 
ceed one-half of that number. Hence our quota of 
arms was diminished, and that of the Southern States 
increased. The want of these arms and a proper mil- 
itary organization has added immensely to the cost of 
this war, and to the burden of taxation. More than 
this, if we had respected our constitutional obligation 
we might, at the outset, have placed in the field a force 
that would have put out this rebellion ichen it was first 
Mndledr 

Later in the year, he said : 

" To-day we are putting forth our utmost efforts to 

reinforce our armies in the field. Without conditions 

♦ 

or threats we are exertinoj our ener^-ies to streno:then 

o o o 

the hands of the Government and to replace it in the 
commanding position in which it can either propose 
peace or conduct successful war. And this support is 
freely and generously accorded. We wish to see our 
Union saved, our laws vindicated, and peace once 
more restored to our land." 



38 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

In a siDeech delivered in New York City in Octo- 
ber, 1862, he said : 

'• I was gratified that while I was in a remote part 
of the great West it was in my power to promote the 
formation of a company of as bold and as sturdy 
men as ever rallied in defence of our country's flag. 
I recall Avith pride their array when drawn up before 
my lodgings ; they expressed, through their command- 
er, their good- will toward myself, and their obligations 
for such assistance as I had been able to give them." 



CHAPTER III. 

The Wfir divides the people of the North into two great Parties — Politi- 
cal affairs in New York — Meeting of the Democratic Convention — 
Mr. Seymour Nominated for Governor — Platform of the New York 
Democracy — The Eepublicans Nominate General "Wadsworth — Mr. 
Seymour is Elected — His Inaugural Address — His Messnge to the 
Legislature — Review of the Condition of the Country — He Points 
out the Causes of the TTar — Shows the Dangers which Threaten 
the Country — Denunciation of the Excesses of the Republicans — It 
is not too Late to Save the Union — Errors of the Administration — 
Danger to be Apprehended from a Consolidated Government — Out- 
rages Practiced upon the People — Martial Law — Tbe Union is In- 
dissoluble — How it may be Saved — Eloquent Peroration — Trouble in 
the Legislature — A dignified Message — Governor Seymour's Speech in 
New York, July 4th, 1863 — Review of the State of the Country — 
Eloquent Appeal for Mercy and Conciliation — Comments upon the 
Address — Mr. Seymour's Wisdom and Far-sightedness — His Candor 
and Intrepidity the Best Proofs of his Patriotism. 

■ One of the effects of the war was to destroy the 
small parties which had existed previous to it, and to 
divide the people of the Union into two great parties 
— the Democratic and Kepublican. In New York the 
fonner members of the " American " party, determined 
to support the Democratic nominee in the contest for 
Governor, in the fall of 1862. They held a Convention 
at Troy, nominated Horatio Seymour for Governor, 
and adjourned. This was a high compliment, as it 
came from the most determined of Mr. Seymour''s old 
political foes. A few days later the E-egular Democratic 
Convention met at Alban}', and nominated Mr. Sey- 
mour as their candidate. 



40 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUE. 

It has been so often charged that Mr. Se}'mour 
was the candidate of those who Avished the desliaiction 
of the Union, that we cannot do better than give the 
platform upon which the Democratic party went into 
the contest, and upon which Mr. Seymour was elected 
by the people of New York. It is as follows : 

'"''Jxesolved^ That the Democracy of New York, 
waiving the expression of their views upon questions 
not rendered imperative by the imperilled condition 
of their country, hereby declare — 

''''First. That they will continue to render the Gov- 
ernment their sincere and united support in the use of 
all legitimate means to suppress the Kebellion, and re- 
store the Union as it was and maintain the Constitu- 
tion as it is — believing that that sacred instrument, 
founded in wisdom by our fathers, clothes the consti- 
tuted authorities with full power to accomplish such 
purpose. 

'"''Second. That by the follo"s\'ing resolution, unani- 
mously passed by Congress in July 1861, the Govern- 
ment was pledged to the policy inculcated therein, and 
which cannot be parted from without violation of 
pubic faith, viz : 

" ' Resolved^ That the present deplorable Civil 
War has been forced upon the country by the disu- 
nionists of the Southern States, now in arms against 
the Constitutional Government, and in arms around 
the Capital ; that in this national emergency. Con- 
gress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resent- 
ment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; 
that this war is not waged on their part, in an}' spirit 



THE PLATFORM OF '62. 41 

of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subju- 
gation, or purpose of overthrowing or interfering witli 
the rights or established institutions of those States, 
but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Con- 
stitution and to preserve the Union, with all the dig- 
nity, equality, and rights of the several States unim- 
paired ; and that as soon as these objects are accom- 
plished the war ought to cease/ 

" Third. That we, having confidence in the loyalty 
of the citizens of New York, reiterate the sentiments 
heretofore expressed by the Democratic party — that 
the illegal and unconstitutional arrests and imprison- 
ments of citizens of this State are without the justifi- 
cation of necessity, and we denounce such arrests as a 
usurjDation and a crime, and the freedom of the press, 
equally protected by the Constitution, ought to be 
maintained. 

" Fourth. That we are willing to act in the coming 
election "svith any class of lo}'al citizens who agree with 
us in the principles herein expressed ; that we hereby 
invite the co-operation of all citizens in giving the 
most emphatic expression to these principles by 
supporting the ticket nominated by the Conven- 
tion." 

Mr. Seymour's opponent in this contest was Gen- 
eral James Wadsworth, a gentleman of fine abilities 
and unblemished personal character. He was the 
administration Candidate, and all the influence of the 
Federal Government was exerted in his behalf. The 
election took place on the 4th of November, 1862, and 
resulted as follows : 



42 LIFE OF HORATIO SEY5E0UK. 

For Mr. Seymour . . 306,649 Votes. 
For Gen. Wadsworth . . 295,897 " 
Seymour's majority over Wadsworth, 10,752 " 

Governor SejTnour was inaugurated at Albany on 
the 1st of January 1863. His Inaugural address w^as 
very brief. After complimenting the retiring Gov- 
ernor (Mr. Morgan) upon the manner in which he had 
discharged the duties of his position, he said : 

" Fellow Citizens : In your presence I have sol- 
emnly sworn to support the Constitution of the United 
States, with all its grants, restrictions, and guarantees, 
and I shall support it. 

" I have also sworn to support another constitu- 
tion — the Constitution of the State of New York — 
with all its powers and rights. I shall uphold it. 

" I have sworn faithfully to perform the duties of 
the office of Governor of this State, and with your aid 
they shall be faithfully performed. These Constitu- 
tions and law^s are meant for the guidance of official 
conduct and for your protection and welfare. 

" The first law I find recorded for my observance 
is that which declares 'it shall be the duty of the 
Governor to maintain and defend the sovereignty and 
jurisdiction of this State,' and the most marked in- 
junction of the Constitution to the Executive is, that he 
' shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed.' 

" These Constitutions do not conflict; the line of 
separation between the responsibilities and obligations 
which each imposes is well defined. They do not em- 
barrass us in the performance of our duties as citizens 
or officials." 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 43 

The Governor then briefly alluded to the quiet 
transfer of political power from one party to another 
as a proof of the strength of our institutions, expressed 
the hope that in two years more the nation would be 
reunited, peaceful, and glorious, returned his thanks 
to the assemblage, and withdrew. 

The Governors message was delivered on the 6th. 
We have room for only a brief summary of this most 
excellent document. 

He said that the war had taken more than 200,- 
000 of the men of the State from the workshop into 
the field. Slavery was not the cause of the war, but 
had been made the subject of it. We must look for 
the cause of the war in the prevailing disregard of the 
laws and Constitution, and above all, in local preju- 
dices grown up in the two extremes of the country, 
where remote positions and interests made them less 
informed regarding the condition and character of the 
white people than in the Central and Western States. 
He declared that the rights of the States must be re- 
spected, and insisted that the attempts which were 
being made to stifle public opinion should cease. The 
people, he said, demanded free discussion, and were 
anxious to know their true condition. His lansfuao-e 

o o 

was plain on this point. He said: 

" Not only is our national life at stake, but every 
personal, every family, and every sacred duty and in- 
terest are involved. 

" The truths of our financial and military situation 
must not be kept back ; there must be no attempt to 
put doAvn the free expression of public opinion. 



44 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

"Affrighted at the ruin they have wrought, the 
authors of our calamities in the North and South insist 
that this war was caused by an unavoidable contest 
about slavery. This has been the subject, not the cause 
of the controversy. "We are to look for the causes of 
the war in the prevailing disregard of the obligations 
of the law and the Constitution, in the disrespect for 
constituted authorities, and, above all, in the local pre- 
judices which have grown up in the two portions of 
the Atlantic States — the two extremes of our coun- 
try. 

" There is no honest statement of our difficulties 
which does not teach that our people must reform 
themselves, as well as the conduct of the Government 
and the policy of our rulers. It is not too late to save 
our country, if we will enter upon the duty in the right 
spirit and in the right way. 

" While it is the right of our Government to declare 
upon measures and policy, it is our duty to obey and 
give a ready support to their decisions. This is a vital 
maxim of liberty. 

" This war should have been averted, but its flood- 
gates were opened, and the Administration could not 
grasp its dimensions nor control its sweep. The Gov- 
ernment Avas borne away with the current, and 
struo;o;led as best it could with the resistless tide. Few 
seemed able to comprehend the military or financial 
problem. 

" Hence, we are not to sit in harsh judgment upon 
the errors in their conduct or their policy ; but, while 
we are to concede all these excuses for mistakes, we 



BRIEF SUMMARY. 45 

are not to accept errors nor sanction violations of prin- 
ciple. 

"The same causes Avhich estimate their faults in 
judgment must make us the more vigilant to guard 
against their usurpations." 

He declared that a consolidated Government in 
this vast country would destroy the essential rights and 
privileges of the people. The sovereignty of the States 
can not be given up. He urged economy and integrity 
in the administration of aifairs, as these are vital in 
periods of "svar ; and said that meddling and intrigues 
had thwarted and paralyzed the vigor of the troops and 
the skill of their generals within the influence of the 
national capital, while those armies which o^^erated at 
a distance from AYashington gained victories. He de- 
nounced the outrages of the Government upon the 
people in making arbitrary arrests, suppressing the 
public journals, and establishing a system of espionage. 
Said he: 

"The suppression of journals and the imprisonment 
of persons are glaringly partisan. Conscious of these 
gross abuses, an attempt has been made to shield the 
violators of law, and suppress inquiry into their rou- 
tines and conduct. This attempt will fail ; unconstitu- 
tional acts will not be shielded by constitutional law. 
I shall not inquire what rights States in rebellion have 
forfeited, but I deny that rebellion can destroy a single 
right of the citizens of a loyal State. I denounce the 
doctrine that civil war in the South takes away from 
the loyal North the benefits of one principle of civil lib- 
erty. It is a hio;h crime to abduct citizens of this State. 



46 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

" It is made my duty by the Constitution to see 
that the laws are enforced, and I shall investigate every 
alleged violation of our statutes, and see that the 
offenders are brought to justice. Sheriffs and district 
attornevs are admonished that it is their dutv to take 
care that no persons within their resj)ective counties are 
imprisoned or carried by force beyond their limits with- 
out due process of legal authority." 

He denounced the establishment of martial Jaw in 
the loyal States as opposed to the Constitution and the 
genius of the Government. The President, he said, 
holds his office, not hy the will of the majority, huthy 
the Constitution ivhich 2^lc(ced him there hy a vote of 
1,800,000 against 2,800,000. He solemnly asserted 
that if the Constitution was powerless to restrain the 
Executive within its prescribed limits, it made him 
powerless to keep the States in the Union. Those who 
held that there was no sanctity in the Constitution, 
must of necessity admit that there was no guilt in 
rebellion. 

He declared the President's emancipation proclama- 
tion a violation of the Constitution, impolitic, and unjust, 
and that it would have the effect of chan2:ino; the object 
for which the war was being waged, arguing with far- 
seeing wisdom, that if the South must be held under 
military subjugation and the negroes managed by the 
Government, the Government must be converted into 
a military despotism. 

He argued that the Union is indissoluble, and that 
the factions, both Northern and Southern, must be put 
down. So closely, he said, are the upper and lower 



SUMMAKY OF MESSAGE. 47 

valleys of the Mississippi bound together, that when 
cotton was burned in Louisiana, com was used for fuel 
in Illinois. The war was ruining the Southern con- 
sumer and bankrupting the Northern producer. 

The Union, he declared, would be restored by the 
Central and Western States, who are exempt from the 
violent passions which influence the extremes. Those 
of the Central Slave States which at first rejected the 
ordinance of secession, and which were driven off from 
the Union by the contemptuous and irritating policy 
of the Government, must be brought back. The res- 
toration of the whole Union would only be the work 
of time, with such exertion as coidd be put forth with- 
out needlessly sacrificing the life and treasure of the 
North in a bloody and calamitous contest. The exer- 
cise of armed power must be accompanied by a firm 
and conciliatory policy, so as to restore the Union with 
the least possible injury to both sections. 
Near the close of the message, he said : 
" At this moment the fortunes of our country are 
influenced by the results of battles. Our armies in the 
field must be supported ; all the constitutional demands 
of our General Government must be promptly respond- 
ed to. Under no circumstances can a division of the 
Union be conceded. We will put forth every exertion 
of power ; we will use every policy of conciliation ; we 
will hold out every inducement to the people of the 
South to return to their allegiance consistent with 
honor ; we will guarantee them every right and every 
consideration demanded by the Constitution alone, and 
by that fraternal regard which must prevail in a com- 



48 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

mon country ; but we can never voluntarily consent 
to the breaking up of the Union of these States, or 
the destruction of the Constitution." 

The organization of the Assembly was delayed for 
some time by difficulties in electing a Sj^eaker. There 
were efforts made by outsiders to interrupt the pro- 
ceedings of that body, and the Republicans, with their 
usual haste and unfairness, endeavored to lay the 
odium of the outrage upon the Governor. The Senate 
adopted a resolution calling on him to perform his 
duty in the premises, and repress any popular disturb- 
ance. In reply to this demand, he submitted to the 
Senate the following message : 

" Gentlemen of the Senate : I have received from 
your honorable body the following preamble and res- 
olutions : 

" Whereas, It has come to the knowledge of Sen- 
ators that the election of a Speaker to the Assembly 
is delayed by the interference and threats of a mob, 
admitted into the lobbies of the Assembly Chamber, 
and which las endeavored to control the Legislative 
action of the Assembly by threats and by violence ; 

" Resolved, That it is the solemn and imperative 
duty of the Executive authority of this State, promptly 
and without hesitation, to see to it that the laws of 
the State be faithfully executed, and that this first at- 
tempt to coerce Legislative action b}^ violence, and 
brute force and threats thereof, be promptly thwarted 
and punished. 

" Eesolved, That a committee of three be appoint- 



DIGNIFIED POSITION. 49 

ed by the Chair, Avhose duty it shall be to confer with 
his Excellency the Governor, and urge upon him. the 
urgent necessity and propriety of prompt and energetic 
action for the protection of the Assembly from mob 
violence, and that the authors, aiders and abettors 
thereof be speedily brought to condign punishment. 

" These were communicated to me by a Committee 
of the Senate. 

" To avoid the mistaken and injurious impressions 
they are calculated to make, it is proper I should state 
that when a complaint was made on Friday last, by a 
member of the Assembly, that the proceedings of that 
body were disturbed by the disorderly conduct of per- 
sons in the lobbies and galleries, I informed him that 
any protection which might be called for by any mem- 
ber of the Assembly would be immediately afford- 
ed. 

" The difficulties of the Assembly grow out of the 
differences of opinion among its members with respect 
to its organization. 

" There is an obvious impropriety in any interfer- 
ence by one department of the Government with the 
proceedings of any co-ordinate branch of that Govern- 
ment, unless a request is made l)y the parties in- 
terested. 

" Before the passage of the resolutions of the Sen- 
ate, every member of the Assembly who spoke to me 
upon the subject was told that he had a right to full 
protection, but to avoid even apparent interference 
with the organization of the Assembly, which, by the 
Constitution, is expressly left to the exclusive control 
4 



50 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of that body, my action must be based upon a request 
for protection from those directly concerned. 

" Immediately upon being advised of the alleged 
disorders, I consulted with the Mayor of the city, who 
made adequate arrangements to prevent any outside 
interference. I felt it due to the Senate, as a matter 
of courtesy, to explain to them, that I can only act 
upon a request coming from members of that branch 
of the Legislature which is affected by any disorderly 
proceedings. 

Horatio Seymour." 

On the 4th of July, 1863, Governor Seymour ad- 
dressed a large and brilliant audience in the Academy 
of Music, in the City of New York. We make the 
following extracts from this able address : 

" When I accepted the invitation to speak, with 
others, at this meeting, we were promised the down- 
fall of Vicksburg, the opening of the Mississippi, the 
probable capture of the Confederate Capital, and the 
exhaustion of the Rebellion. By common consent all 
parties had fixed upon this day, when the results of 
the campaign should be known, to mark out that line 
of policy which they felt that our country should pur- 
isue. But, in the moment of expected victory, there 
came the midnight cry for help from Pennsylvania to 
save its despoiled fields from the invading foe ; and, 
almost within sight of this great commercial metrop- 
olis, the ships of your merchants were burned to the 
waters edge." 



SPEECH IN NEW YORK. 51 

" A few years ago, we stood before this community 
to warn them of the dangers of sectional strife ; but 
our fears were laughed at. At a later day, when the 
clouds of war overhung our country, we implored those 
in authority to compromise that difficulty ; for we had 
been told by that great orator and statesman, Burke, 
that there never yet was a revolution that might not 
have been prevented by a compromise opportunely and 
graciously made. [Great applause.] Our prayers 
were unheeded. Again, when the contest was opened, 
we invoked those who had the conduct of affairs not 
to underrate the powers of the adversary — not to un- 
derrate the courage, and resources, and endurance of 
our own sister States. This warning was treated as 
sympathy with treason. You have the results of these 
unheeded warnings and unheeded prayers; they have 
stained our soil with blood ; they have carried mourn- 
ing into thousands of homes; and to-day they have 
brought our country to the very verge of destruction. 
Once more, I come before you, to offer again an earn- 
est prayer, and beg you to listen to a warning. Our 
country is not only at this time torn by one of the 
bloodiest wars that has ever ravaged the face of the 
earth, but, if we turn our faces to our own loyal 
States, how is it there ? You find the community di- 
vided into political parties, strongly arrayed, and using 
with regard to each other terms of reproach and defi- 
ance. It is said by those who support more particu- 
larly the Administration, that we, who differ honestly, 
patriotically, sincerely, from them with regard to the 
line of duty, are men of treasonable purposes and ene- 



52 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

mies to our country. [' Hear, hear.'] On the other 
hand, the Democratic organization look upon this Ad- 
ministration as hostile to their rights and liberties; 
they look upon their opponents as men who would do 
them wrono- in regard to their most sacred franchises. 
I need not call your attention to the tone of the press, 
or to the tone of public feeling, to show you how, at 
this moment, parties are thus exasperated, and stand 
in defiant attitudes to each other. A few years ago, 
we were told that sectional strife, waged in words like 
these, would do no harm to our country ; but you have 
seen the sad and bloody results. Let us be admonished 
now in time, and take care that this irritation, this 
feeling which is growing up in our midst, shall not also 
ripen into civil troubles that shall carry the evils of 
war into our own homes. 

" Upon one point, all are agreed, and that is this : 
Until we have a united North, we can have no suc- 
cessful war. Until we have a united, harmonious 
North, we can have no beneficent peace. How shall 
we gain harmony ? How shall the unity of all be ob- 
tained "? Is it to be coerced ? I appeal to you, my 
Republican friends, when you say to us that the na- 
tion's life and existence hang upon harmony and con- 
cord here, if you yourselves, in your serious moments, 
believe that this is to be produced by seizing our per- 
sons, by infringing upon our rights, by insulting our 
homes, and by depriving us of those cherished princi- 
ples for which our fathers fought, and to which we have 
always sworn allegiance." [Great applause.] 



SPEECH. 53 

" We only ask that you shall give to us that \vliich 
you claim for yourselves, and that which every free- 
man, and every man who respects himself, will have, 
freedom of speech, the right to exercise all the fran- 
chises conferred by the Constitution upon American 
citizens. [Great applause.] Can you safely deny us 
these ? Will you not trample upon your own rights if 
you refuse to listen ? Do you not create revolution 
when 3'ou say that our persons may be rigbtfuUy 
seized, our property conliscated, our homes entered? 
Are you not exposing yourselves, your own interests, 
to as great a peril as that with, which you threaten us ? 
Remember this, that the bloody, and treasonable, and 
revolutionary doctrine of public necessity can be pro- 
claimed by a mob as well as by a government." [Ap- 
plause.] * * * * * 

"To-day, the great masses of conservatives who 
still battle for time-honored principles of government, 
amid denunciation, contumely, and abuse, are the only 
barriers that stand between this Government and its 
own destruction. If we should acquiesce in the doc- 
trine thai, in times of war. Constitutions are suspend- 
ed, and laws have lost their force, then we should accept 
a doctrine that the very right by which this Govern- 
ment administers its power has lost its virtue, and we 
would be brought down to the level of rebellion itself, 
having an existence only by virtue of material power. 
When men accept despotism, they may have a choice 
as to who the despot shall be. The struggle then will 
not be, Shall we have constitutional liberty? But, 
having accepted the doctrine that the Constitution has 



54 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

lost its force, every instinct of personal ambition, every 
instinct of personal security, will lead men to put them- 
selves under the protection of that power which they 
suppose most competent to guard their persons." 

" We stand to-day amid new-made graves, in a land 
filled with mourning ; upon a soil saturated with the 
blood of the fiercest conflict of which history gives us 
an account. We can, if we will, avert all these calami- 
ties, and evoke a blessing. If we will do what ? Hold 
that Constitution, and liberties, and laws are suspend- 
ed ? — shrink back from the assertion of right ? Will 
that restore them ? Or shall we do as our fathers did, 
under circumstances of like trial, when they combated 
against the pov,^ers of a crown ? They did not say that 
liberty was suspended ; that men might be deprived of 
the right of trial by jury ; that they might be torn 
from their homes by midnight intruders ? [Tremen- 
dous and continued aj)plause.] If you would save 
your country, and your liberties, begin right ; begin at 
the hearth- stones, which are ever meant to be the foun- 
dations of American institutions ; begin in your family 
circle ; declare that your privileges shall be held sacred ; 
and, having once proclaimed your own rights, take care 
that you do not invade those of your neighbor." 

There are some persons who profess to see in these 
calm and thoughtful words the evidence that their 
author, at the time he spoke, was a s}'mpathizer with 
the people of the South in their efforts against the 
Union. We are not of that number. The whole ad- 
dress of Mr. Seymour is marked by a deep, calm in- 



COMMENTS ON THE SPEECH. 55 

sight into tlie condition of the affairs of the country. 
He was fnlly aware of all that had been accomplished 
by the army, and was prompt to accord it his hearty 
praise for its services ; but he held that in spite of the 
brilliant achievements of 'the army, the Administration 
was in-competent to profit by them. Instead of taking 
advanta2;e of the Federal successes to endeavor to win 
back the Southern States by wise measures of concilia- 
tion, the Government expended its energy in hamper- 
ing and perplexing the military commanders, and suf- 
fered every opportunity for offering terms of peace to 
the South to pass by unimproved. It was, therefore 
against the incompetency and lack of statesmanship 
evinced by the Administration, that his remarks were 
directed, and not against the army. He held that the 
troops in the field had accomplished enough to make 
an honorable peace sure if the Government could be 
induced to follow up their successes by measures which 
would meet with a hearty response from the people of 
the whole countrv. He was not willins; that the sue- 
cesses of the army should be allowed to go for nothing, 
and his strictures were directed at those w^ho seemed to 
desire nothing but a continuance of the war. 

In the canvass of 1864, the real issue between par- 
ties was simply this : The Republicans held that we 
had only to deal with a military problem ; they averred 
that when the armies of the South were crushed out 
by force, and that when the life of the rebellion was 
stamped out by our soldiers, our difficulties would be 
ended, and that our Union would be restored. On the 
other hand, the Democratic party urged that states- 



56 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

mansliip, as well as force, was needed to save our coun- 
try from disorder, and from the fearful pressure of tax- 
ation wliicli must grow out of the Republican policy. 
In a speech made by Mr. Seymour in Philadelphia, he 
pointed out the fact that our armies had won great and 
signal victories ; that if the devotion of our soldiers in 
the field had been seconded by wisdom in the cabinet, 
the war would have been ended before the close of 
1863 ; the North would have been saved from the bur- 
then of debt and the financial troubles which now hin- 
der its prosperity and perplex the minds of its business 
men. At the same time he showed the constant effort 
made by the Republican leaders to throw the odium of 
their own failures upon our armies. By declaring that 
it was a military problem alone, they turned the pub- 
lic mind away from their own imbecility and incapacity. 
Mr. Seymour then predicted that when every Southern 
army was driven from the field, and when not a man 
was left to raise an armed hand in resistance to the 
Government, it would then be found that our Union 
was not restored. On the other hand, all of the diffi- 
culties growing out of the malice and of the blunders 
of those in power, would be found to be more danger- 
ous and difficult than the contest Avith armed rebellion. 
It would then be seen that the Republican party was 
not only unable to conduct public affairs in a time of 
war, but would prove still more incapable of govern- 
ing the country with wisdom in a period of peace. It 
will be a problein for the future historian to solve, which 
faction brought tlie gravest evils upon the American 
people — ^ those who, during four years, waged war 



COMMENTS ON THE SPEECH. 57 

against its Government, or that party which, during 
the succeeding four years, mismanaged and entangled 
its financial and political condition. Those who will 
read the speeches made by Mr. Seymour during the 
canvass of 18G4, will find that the present condition of 
public affairs was clearly predicted by him. He was 
not thus enabled to forecast the future because he had 
prophetic views, but because all reason and the teach- 
ings of all history jilainly foreshadowed that a policy 
springing from mingled corruption, malice and inca- 
pacity, could only produce, as their results, disorder, 
violence, and an unsettled condition of public and 
private affairs. 

Mr. Seymour was too great a man, too wise a states- 
man, to confound loyalt}? to his country and its Con- 
stitution with fidelity to an Administration. To the 
former he was devoted with his whole soul, and he 
failed not to render to it every assistance in his power. 
Such aid as he could give the Government in the con- 
scientious discharge of his duty, was promptly and 
faithfully given. That he did not sustain the Admin- 
istration in all its acts, is to his credit and not to his 
discredit. He was not willing to support a war for 
mere conquest, and he did not desire the subjugation 
of the- South at the expense of the freedom of the whole 
country. He believed that the rights secured to every 
citizen by the Constitution of the United States are in- 
alienable, and he was in favor of resisting the outrages 
of the Government upon them. He did not believe 
that it was necessary to destroy freedom of speech and 
of the press in the North, to fill the forts and prisons 



58 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of every loyal State with citizens whose only crime was 
a dissent from the views of the Republican party ; to 
violate the sanctity of the telegraph and post-office, 
and to outrage even the most sacred relations of private 
life — all of which had been done, and was being done, 
in the loyal States by the orders of President Lincoln, 
and his officials. His judgment taught him that the 
evil seed which the Government was sowing would one 
day 3'ield their fruit — that no Government can sys- 
tematically violate its own laws without ultimately be- 
ing destroyed ; and his common sense convinced him 
that the Republican party, whether they desired such a 
state of affairs or not, were working surely and power- 
fully for the destruction of our free institutions and the 
establishment of a terrible despotism in their place; 
and he would have been no true patriot who could 
have refrained from warning his countrymen of these 
things. The results of the war — the complete and ut- 
ter subjugation of the South, the establishment of a 
military despotism in that section, the effort to degrade 
the intelligence and worth of those States beneath their 
barbarism and ignorance, the vast and useless accumu- 
lation of debt in the sham efforts at reconstruction, and 
the unsettled and threatening condition of the loyal 
States — all amply vindicated the wisdom of Mr. Sey- 
mour ; and the fact that he tried to avert such a state 
of affairs is the best guarantee of his patriotism that 
can be given. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Invasion of Pennsylvania by General Lee — Alarm in the Nortli— Excite- 
ment in New York— The Government calls for Troops from the 
Border States — The President asks New York for aid — Prompt 
Reply of Governor Seymour— Orders of the State Authorities — Pa- 
triotic Response of the Troops — Aid sent to the Border — Statement 
of Troops sent by New York — Energy of Governor Seymour — Re- 
publican Testimony on tliis point — Messages from the Government 
— The President and Secretary of AVar thank Governor Seymour 
for the Prompt Assistance given by him — Testimony of Mr. Lincoln — 
The Official Correspondence between the State and Federal Author- 
ities — Incontestible Proofs — Statement of the " Philadelphia Age " — 
Mr. Seymour triumphantly Vindicated by his own Acts from the 
Calumnies of his Enemies. 

Ox the 15tli of June, 1863, the Confederate army 
under General Lee, which had manoeuvred General 
Hookers army from its position on the Rappahannock 
and seized the upper fords of the Potomac, entered the 
State of Maryland, and for the second time invaded 
the lo}'al States. Marching leisurely through Mary- 
land, Lee moved into Pennsylvania, manoeuvring in 
such a manner as to make it uncertain whether he de- 
signed attacking Washington, Baltimore, or Philadel- 
phia. The news of his movements filled the entire 
Border with alarm, and the studied reticence which 
the Government observed respecting the movements 
of the two opposing armies only tended to increase the 
excitement. The Government was as much excited as 
the people, and feeling its own incompetency to meet 



60 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the crisis, refrained from trainmelliiig General Meade, 
the able commander of the Army of the Potomac, with 
instructions. It realized one thing, however, that there 
was an urgent necessity for more men; and accordingly 
on the 15th of June, the President issued his procla- 
mation, calling upon the States of Maryland, Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and West Virginia, to furnish one hundred 
thousand militia, to serve for a period of six months, 
unless sooner discharged. 

The excitement which prevailed along the Border, 
spread quickly to the city of New York, and this feel- 
ing was at once aroused to a positive enthusiasm when 
it became kno^\Ti that New York had been called upon 
to assist Pennsylvania. On the day on which the 
proclamation just referred to was issued, the President 
telegraphed to Governor Seymour, calling for twenty 
thousand militia, to aid in resisting the advance of the 
enemy. The Governor at once sent a prompt response, 
promising all the aid in his power, and on the same 
day the following orders were issued at his com- 
mand: 

"Headquarters First Brigade N. Y. S. N G. ") 
"New York, June 15/A, 1863. J 

"By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the State 
of New York, the several regiments of this brigade 
will hold themselves in readiness to depart for Phila- 
delphia at once, on short notice. By order of 

" Brigadier-General C. B. Spicer. 
" P. H. HoADLEY, Brigade Major and Inspector. 
" AViLLiAM D. DiMoCK, Aidc-de-Camp." 



AID FROM NEW YORK. 61 

" Order No. 3. 
"Headquarters, 543 Broadway, ) 
"New York, June Ihtli, 1863. I 
" Commandants of reo;iments of the Third Brio;:ade 
N. Y. N. G., are hereby directed to report to General 
Wm. Hall, at his quarters, at six o'clock on Tuesday 
morning, by order of the Commander-in-Chief, Hora- 
tio Seymour, to be ready to go to Philadelphia at once, 
on short service. 

" The brigade drill for the 17th inst. is hereby coun- 
termanded. By order. General Wai. Hall. 
" J. K. SiftiH, Quartermaster." 

Copies of these orders were at once telegraphed to 
Washington, where the prompt action of Governor 
Seymour was hailed with satisfaction and deliglit. The 
Secretary of War, at the direction of the President, 
telegraphed the Governor as follows : 

" Washington, June 15th, 1863. 

"Governor Seymour: The President directs mo to 
return his thanks, with those of the Department, for 
your prompt response. A strong movement of your 
city regiments to Philadelphia would be a very encour- 
aging movement, and do great good in giving strength 
to that State. 

" The call had to be for six months unless sooner dis- 
charged in order to comply with the law. It is not 
likely that more than thirty days' service — perhaps not 
so long — would be required. Can you forward your 
city regiments speedily ? Please reply early. 

" Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War." 



62 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

As soon as the orders were issued for tlie assembling 
of the militia, the men composing the various regiments 
began to assemble at their respective places of rendez- 
vous in response to the call upon them. The utmost 
enthusiasm prevailed, and the preparations were 
pushed forward as rapidly as possible. The next day 
the following order was issued : 

" Headquarters First Division N. Y. S. M,. \ 
"New York, June 16th, 1863. j 

" The regiments of this division are directed to 
proceed forthwith to Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, to 
assist in repelling the invasion of the State. 

" The United States Quartermaster and Commis- 
sary will furnish transportation and subsistence upon 
the requisition of regimental quartermasters, counter- 
signed by the colonels. 

" The term of service will not exceed thirty days. 

" Commandants of brigades and reoiments will 

o o 

report to the Major-General the numbers ready for 
transportation, and will receive direction as to the 
route and time of embarkation. 

" Each man will provide himself with two days' 
cooked provisions. 

" By order of Major-Gen. Charles W. Saistford. 

"J. H. Wilcox, Division Inspector." 

" This division consisted of four brigades. The 
first brigade, under Gen. C. B. Spicer, was composed 
of the 1st, 2d, 3d, 71st, and- 73d regiments. The sec- 
ond brigade, under Gen. Chas. Yates, was composed 
of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 12th regiments. The third 



STATEMEiS'T OF TKOOPS SENT. 63 

brigade, under Gen. Hall, was composed of the 7th, 
8th, 37th, and 55th regiments. The fourth brigade 
under Gen. Ewen, was composed of the 11th, 22d, and 
69 th regiments. 

" On that day there went forward the 7th regiment, 
650 men. On the 18th, the 8th, 371 men ; 11th, 
762 men: 23d, 626 men, and 71st, 737 men. On 
the 19th, the 5th, 828 men; 12th, 684 men; 22d, 
568 men ; 37th, 693 men ; 65th, 555 men, and 74th, 
504 men. On the 20th, the 4th, 560 men ; 13th, 496 
men ; 28th, 484 men ; 56th, 476 men. On the 22d, 
the 6th, 656 men; 52d, 351 men; 69th, 600 men. 
On the 23d, the 67th, 400 men. On the 24th, the 
55th, 350 men; 68th, 400 men. On the 26th, the 
47th, 400 men. On the 27th, the 21st, 600 
men. On July 3d, the 17th, 400 men; 18th, 400 
men ; 84th, 480 men. The total number sent between 
the 15th of June and the 3d of July was 13,971 
men. During the same time scattered detachments 
of volunteers in the State to the number of 1,827 
men were organized and equipped and ordered to 
Harrisburg."* 

Governor Seymour entered energetically upon the 
task of forwarding these troops. Feeling that his 
presence in New York would greatly encourage the 
men and assist the process of volunteering, he repaired 
to that city on the 17th of June, and gave his per- 
sonal supervision to the matter. 

A letter from New York, dated June 17th, and 
published in the Philadelphia Inquirer^ a Republi- 
♦ The Annual Ojclopadia, 1863, p. 95. 



64 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

can journal thus describes the state of affau's in the 
former city at this time : 

" There is a much more confident feeling visible on 
all hands to-day, in regard to the rebel invasion, owing 
partly to the reassuring character of the Inquirer''s 
dispatches from the border, but mainly to the efficient 
measures that have been taken to beat back the rebels 
if their advance is persisted in. The course pursued 
by the several loyal Governors in reference to the crisis 
seems to be indicative of a unity of purpose, which is, 
under all circumstances, the best guarantee of efficient 
action. Gov. Parker, of New Jersey, and Gov. Sey- 
mour, have done well. They have shown the rebel 
leaders that when it comes to a Northern invasion. 
Democrats and Hejoublicans occupy one and the same 
platform, and know no difference of opinion. Recent 
events raising some doubts in many minds, on that 
point, after all it may be the advance of the enemy to 
Chambersburg even may prove an advantage to us, if 
it has served to remove those doubts. 

" The Seventh Ref?iment left for Harrisburo; this 
morning, and will probably reach their destination 
before this is in type. On passing down Broadway 
they Avere loudly cheered. 

" About three hundred of the Twenty-first New 
Jersey Regiment, who came home on furlough from 
Trenton, on Monday, received orders this afternoon to 
report at headquarters. They left for their destination 
at 3 o'clock. 

" The Brookl)-n regiments are rapidly recruiting. 
One of them is nearly full, and expects to leave to- 



PEOMPT AKD EFFECTIVE. 65 

morrow. Otbers, if need be, •will immediately fol- 
low. 

" Governor Seymour and General Sprague will 
be in New York to-night. A conference will be held 
with Major-General Sandford and the brigade Generals 
at the St. Nicholas Hotel at ten o'clock this evening. 
The Governor says, if need be, he will stay here to su- 
perintend the forwarding of the troops himself. He 
says when a sister State is in danger red tape must not 
be permitted to stand in the way. 

" Brigadier-Generals Hall and Yates, of the 2d and 
3d Brigades of the State Militia, have been ordered to 
report at Harrisburg with their commands. They 
will leave to-morrow. Being unable to obtain uni- 
forms and clothing, or arms, for some of the regi- 
ments, from the United States authorities, Gov. Sey- 
mour has directed that they be drawn from the State, 
and requisitions are now being filled so as to ena- 
ble all the regiments in this city to leave for Har- 
risburg to-morrow. The 8th regiment will leave this 
evening. Gov. Seymour arrived in this city this 
evening, to confer with and assist the military in a 
prompt movement to aid Pennsylvania. 

" The militarj^ regiments throughout the State 
are being rapidly organized. There will be no ne- 
cessity of a draft to fill them." 

The President, grateful for the prompt and effec- 
tive aid rendei'ed by the Governor of New York, 
and for the cordial and hearty manner in which that 
aid was given, sent him the following despatch through 
the Secretary of War : 



66 life of horatio seymour. 

" War Department, Washington City, 1 
" June Idth, 1863. j 
" To Adjutant- General Sprague : 

" The President directs me to return his thanks to His 
Excellency Gov. Seymour, and his staff, for their ener- 
getic and prompt action. Whether any futher force is 
likely to be required will be communicated to you to- 
morrow, by which time it is expected the movements 
of the enemy will be more fully developed. 

(" Signed) " Edwin M. Stanton, 

" Secretary of War." 

Again, on the 27th, the following despatch was 
sent to the Governor of the State by the Secretary of 
War: 

" War Department, Washington City, | 
June 27th, 1863. 3 

" Dear Sir : I cannot forbear exjDressing to you 
the deep obligation I feel for the prompt and cordial 
support you have given the Government in the present 
emergency. The energy and patriotism you have ex- 
hibited I may be permitted personally and officially 
to acknowledge, without arrogating any personal 
claims on my part, to such service, or any service what- 
ever. 

" I shall be happy always to be esteemed your friend.* 

" Edwin M. Stanton. 
" His Excellency Horatio Seymour."" 

* The following aro tho ofBcial telegrams relating to the action of 
Governor Seymour in this matter, in addition to those already given : 



HIS WAR RECORD. 67 

Not content "with sending these messages, a few 
days before the battle of Gettysburg, when the officer 
of Governor Seymour s staff, who had been charged 

■Washington, June 15iA, 1863. 
To His Excellency Goyekxor Seymour : 

The movements of the Rebel forces in Virginia are now sufficiently 
developed, to show that General Lee, with his whole army, is moving 
forward to invade the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and other 
States. 

The President to repel this invasion, promptly, has called upon Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia for one hundred thousand 
(100,000) militia, for six (6) months, unless sooner discharged. It is im- 
portant to have the largest possible force in the least time, and if other 
States would furnish militia for a short time, to be ordered on the draft, 
it would greatly advance the object. Will you please inform me, imme- 
diately, if, in answer to a special call of the President, you can raise and 
forward say twenty thousand (20,000) militia, as volunteers without 
bounty, to be credited on the draft of your State, or what number you 
can probably raise ? E. M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 



Albany, June \tith 1863. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington: 

I will spare no efforts to send you troops at once. I have sent orders 
to the militia officers of the State. Hoeatio Seymour. 



Albany, June loth, 1863. 
Eon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington : 

I will order the New York and Brooklyn troops to Philadelphia at 
once. Wliere can they get arms if they are needed ? 

Horatio Seyjiour. 



[Here follows Mr. Stanton's telegram of June 15th to the Governor, 
given above, thanking him for his promptness.] 



Albany, June 15th, 1863. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington : 

We have about two thousand enlisted volunteers in this State. I will 
have them consolidated into companies and regiments, and sent on at 
ODce. You must provide them with arms. Horatio Seymour. 



68 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

with superintending the forwarding of the New York 
troops to Harrisburg, called to pay his respects to the 
President, before leaving "Washington, Mr. Lincoln, 

Albany, June \Mh^ 1863. 
lion. E. M. Staxton^, Secretary of War, Washington : 

Four returned volunteer regiments can be put in the field at once, 
for three months', service. Can arms and accoutrements be supplied in 
New York? J. T. Speagtje, 

Adjutant- General. 



Washington, June \^th, 1863. 
To Adjutant- General SpEAorE : 

Upon your requisition, any troops you may send to Pennsylvania wiD 
be armed and equipped in New York, with nevr arms. Orders have 
been given to the Bureau of Ordnance. Edwin M. Stanton. 



WAsmxGTON, June 16^/^,1863. 
To Adjutant- General Speague : 

The Quartermaster-General has made provision for the clothing and 
equipment of the troops that may go to Pennsylvania. The issues to be 
made at Harrisburg. You will make requisition for subsistence and 
transportation as heretofore, for troops forwarded from your State. 

Edwin M. Stanton. 



Washington, June IdtTi, 1863. 
To Act. Asst. Adjutant- General Stonehouse : 

The Quartermaster-General has been directed to clothe the volunteers 
from your State, upon their reaching their destination, and provision has 
been made for that purpose. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 



Albany, June \Uh, 1863. 
GovEENOE CuRTiN, Harrisburg : 

I am pushing forward troops as fast as possible, regiments will leave 
New York to-night. All will be ordered to report to General Couch. 

UoKATio Seymour. 



Albany, jH?iel6fA, 1863. 
lion. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 

Officers of old organizations here will take the field with their men, 



HIS WAR KECORD. 69 

taking him by both hands, said to him earnestly, " I 
wish you to miderstand that you cannot possibly use 
words too warm to convey to Governor Seymour my 

and will march to-morrow if they can be paid irrespective of ordnance 
accounts. The Government would still have a hold upon them to refund 
for losses. Johjt T. Speague, 

Adjutant-General. 

Albany, June lUh, 1863. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington : 

By request of Governor Seymour, who has called me here, I write to 
say that the New York city regiments can go with full ranks for any 
time not over three months — say from eight to ten thousand men. The 
shorter the period the larger will be the force. For what time will they 
be required ? Please answer immediately. 

0. W. Sandford, 

Major- General. 

"Washington, June l&th, 1863. 
To Major-General Sandford : 

The Government will be glad to have your city regiments hasten to 
Pennsylvania for any time of service, it is not possible to say how long 
they might be useful, but it is not expected that they would be detained 
more than three (3) months, possibly not longer than twenty (20) or 
thirty (30) days. 

They would be accepted for three (3) months, and discharged as soon 
as the present exigency is over. If aided at the present by your troops 
the people of that State might soon be able to raise a sufficient force to 
relieve your city regiments. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 



Albany, June IStJi, 1863. 
To lion, E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington, D. G. 

About twelve thousand (12,000) men are now on the move for Har- 
risburg, in good spirits and well equipped. 

The Governor says: "Shall troops continue to be forwarded?" 
Please answer. 

Nothing from Washington since first telegrams. 

John T. SpuAGrE, Adjutant- General. 



70 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

thankfulness for his prompt and efficient help given to 
the Government in this crisis." 

Mr. Lincoln afterwards said, in grateful acknow- 

Albant, June 18iA, 1863. 
To Governor Cdbtiit, Harrisburg, Pa: 

About twelve thousand men are now moving and are under orders 
for Harrisburg, in good spirits and well equipped. 

Governor Seymour desires to know if he shall continue to send men. 
He is ignorant of jour real condition. John T. SpEAorE, 

Adjutant- General. 

"Washington, June \^th, 1863. 
To Adjutant- General Speague: 

The President directs me to return his thanks to his Excellency Gov- 
ernor Seymour and staff for their energetic and prompt action. "Whether 
any further force is likely to be required will be communicated to you 
to-morrow, by which time it is expected the movements of the enemy 
will be more fully developed. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 



Albany, June iOth, 1863. 
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington : 

The Governor desires to be informed if he shall continue sending on 
the militia regiments from this State. If so, to what extent, and to what 
point ? J. B. Stonehouse, 

AcVg Asst. Adjutant- General. 



"Washington, June 21st, 1863. 
To AeVg Asst. Adjutant- General Stonehouse : 

The President desires Governor Seymour to forward to Baltimore all 
the militia regiments that he can raise. Edwin M. Stanton, 

Secretary of War. 



Habrisbueg, July 2d, 1863. 

To Mis Excellency, Governop. Seymouk : 

Send forward more troops as rapidly as possible. Every hour in- 
creases the necessity for large forces to protect Pennsylvania. The bat- 
tles of yesterday were not decisive, and if Meade should be defeated, 
unless we have a large army, this State will be overrun by the rebels. 

A. G. CcETiN, Governor of Fenn. 



HONOR INEFFACEABLE. 71 

ledgement of Governor Seymour's services, that no 
Governor had done more to strengthen the United 
States Government in the hour of its need, than Gov- 
ernor Seymour, of New York. Yet in the face of 
these facts the Republican press and speakers con- 
stantly and unblushingly assert that Mr. Seymour 
did his utmost to paralyze the Government and aid 
the Kebellion. The reckless and shameful manner in 
which these slanders are being circulated, and the 
success ■with which they are met and refuted by the 
Democracy, cannot be better sho^\'^l than by giving 
the following editorial from the Philadelphia Age, 
of July 10th, 1868, which we present to the reader 
in place of any comments of our o^vn. We ask a 
careful perusal of it: 

" The Press is prompt in the work of defamation, 
but lacks the ' long memory ' with which, according 
to the proverb, it ought to be provided. Here is a spe- 
cimen of its efforts yesterday : 

' Patriots will remember that when Juds-e Wood- 
ward was running for the Governorship of our State, 
it was openly asserted by the Democracy that, should 
he be elected, no Union troops should pass to the front 
through New York or Pennsylvania ; that Seymour 
and Woodward would throttle the government and end 
the war.' 

Nkw York, July Sd, 1863. 
To Governor Cuktix, ITarrisburg, Pa. : 

Your telegram is received. Troops "will continue to be sent. One 
regiment leaves to-day, another to-morrow, all in good pluck. 

John T. Speagxie, 

Adjutant- General. 



72 LIFE OF HOEATIO SEYMOUR. 

" Not the Democracy, but the knaves who libeled 
them spoke thus, and in doing so, gave the best help 
they could to the rebellion, in flattering it with false 
hopes of Northern sympathy. It was by deeds, not 
words, that the Democracy repelled that lie. When 
the Press uttered it, in 1863, the streets of our city 
were glistening with the bayonets of regiments sent to 
the front to defend Pennsylvania, sent from New Jer- 
sey and New York — by Horatio Seymour, and by 
Joel Parker, the Democratic Governors of those States. 
Governor Curtin was in a condition of hopeless ineffi- 
ciency. It was his party in this city who Avere slow 
to hear his call for troops. George W. Woodward sec- 
onded it manfully, when man}^ a blatant Padical was 
dumb with terror. The candidate of the Democracy, 
with all his sons in the field, Judge Woodward, issued 
this stirring appeal, in a letter addressed to the Chair- 
man of the Democratic State Central Committee, and 
published througliout the State : ' There ought to be 
such an instant uprising of young men in response to 
this call (Governor Curtin's, of July 2G,) as shall be 
suiiicient to assure the public safety, and to teach the 
world that no hostile foot can with impunity tread 
the soil of Pennsylvania (June 29, 1863).' Few can 
have forgotten the condition of things in this city, from 
which the opportune victory of Gettysburg relieved it. 
It cannot be better portrayed than by citing the public 
speech, made at that crisis by Governor Curtin, from 
the Continental Hotel, on the 1st day of July, 1863. 

"If General Meade's army is defeatc'd, which God 
forbid, I need not say to intelligent Pennsylvanians 



HIS WAR RECORD. 73 

what is next to occur. Military men have concurred 
in the opinion, and properly, that the defence of 
Pennsylvania from invasion — certainly of the city — 
will be found upon the banks of the Susquehanna ; 
and certainly it is pleasant for me to announce that the 
call made upon the people of Pennsylvania has been 
responded to all through the State in a manner much 
beyond all official anticipation, and now from her moun- 
tains and valleys, from the homes and public works, our 
loyal and devoted Pennsylvanians are on theu' way to 
the place of rendezvous, and will soon be in arms to 
protect you on the banks of her great river. I ask for 
7,800 men from this city. How soon can I get them? 
Do not measure them by days, let it be hours. * * * * 
We ashed for help from New York — it has come. We 
asked for help from New Jersey — it has come. New 
England will respond ; but first let us show that we 
are' true to our honor and protect ourselves. — Ledger^ 
July 2, 1863. 

" Here is a part of the record of Horatio Seymour, 
in the facts of history, from the lips of the Pepublican 
Governor: '•'•We ashed for help from Neiv Yorh — and 
it has corned We thank the Press for uttering a 
calumny which we can nail to the counter with the 
strong, sure blows of truth. The exuberant expres- 
sions of gratitude which Mr. Lincoln sent to Governor 
Seymour for his energy and patriotism, we reserve for 
another time. We have given the Radicals to-day 
some of the facts of history — let them try to rail them 
off the record.*" 

It is in this manner ' hat the enemies of Mr. Sey- 



74 LIFE OF HOEATIO SEYMOUR. 

mour try to weaken his cause. They fear the manly 
and formidable opposition which he opposes to their 
criminal schemes, and they seek to destroy his influ- 
ence with the people by slandering him. Fortunately 
for him, his public acts have been open, and done in 
the full light of the day, and the record of them is so 
clear that his vindication is simple and easy. The in- 
famy rests solely with the party whose favorite weapon 
is falsehood, for the American people are too just to 
sustain such attacks, and they will be prompt to re- 
ward the true friend of the Union and condemn the 
malice of his foes. 



CHAPTEK V. 

A Brief History of the Conscription— The System Opposed to the Spirit 
of the Constitution — Congress' Passes a Conscription Law — Feeling 
of the People of the Union upon the Subject — Unjustifiable Course 
of the Administration towards the Opponents of its Policy — No Ne- 
cessity for a Draft — The Government decides to enforce the Draft in 
New York City during the Absence of the State Troops — No Notice 
by the Provost-Marshal — Indignation of the Citizens — The Draft be- 
gun — The First Day's Proceedings — Hostility of the Working Men to 
the Draft — Secret Meetings in the Laboring Districts — Eesistance de- 
termined upon — Monday, July 13th — Kesumption of the Draft — The 
First Blow — Attack upon, and Destruction of the Provost-Marshal's 
Office — The Kiot begun — Heroism of the Firemen — Outrages of the 
Mob — Defenceless Condition of the City — Weakness of the Authorities 
— The Call for Troops — Increase of the Troubles — The Kioters defeat 
the U. S. Marines — Fight on Third Avenue — Burning of the Orphan 
Asylum — Attack on the State Armory — Gallant Defence by the 
Police — Burning of Buildings by the Mob — Attack on the " Tribune " 
Office — Rioters Defeated by the Police — Outrages upon the Negroes 
— Heroic Conduct of the Police — Arrival of Governor Seymour in the 
City — His Proclamation to the Eioters — He Declares the City in a 
State of Insurrection — Progress of the Riot — Attack on the Negro 
Quarters — Murder of Colonel O'Brien — Arrival of Troops — The 
Rioters Defeated by the Military — Tlie State Troops Ordered Home — 
Speech of Governor Seymour to the Crowd in the Park — EtFect of 
the Speech — Misrepresentations by the Republican Press — Disin- 
genuousness of the " Albany Evening Journnl " — Course of Arch- 
bishop Hughes — His Speech — Comments — Return of the State 
Troops — The Riot put down—Slanders of the Republican Party — 
Governor Seymour's Course Vindicated. 

During the absence of the militia of the City of 
New York in Pennsylvania, there occurred the most 



76 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

terrible outbreak that has ever been known in this 
country. 

Previous to the year 1863, the recruits for the 
Union army had been raised by volunteering, but the 
ill success Avhich had attended the Federal arms had 
made it necessary that the ranks should be filled up at 
a more rapid rate, and the Government determined to 
accomplish this by a general conscription throughout 
the country. This determination caused considerable 
feeling in all the loyal States. The Constitution of 
the United States provides that Congress shall have 
power, " To provide for calling forth the militia to exe- 
cute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
repel invasions. 

" To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplin- 
ing the militia, and for governing such part of them 
as may be employed in the service of the United 
States, reserving to the States respectively, the ap- 
pointment of the officers, and the authority of training 
the militia according to the discipline prescribed b}' 
Congress." 

Under this clause, the Administration of Mr. Lin- 
coln claimed the right of the General Government to 
enact and enforce the Conscription Law ; and under 
this clause, also, there were large numbers of good 
and true men, earnestly devoted to the cause of the 
Union, who claimed that the States alone had the 
right to raise troops within their own limits. Un- 
fortunately for the codntry, the Administration and 
its friends regarded and treated all difference of opin- 
ion upon this point as a crime, and were not willing 



THE CONSCRIPTION. 77 

to admit that any man could be a true friend of the 
Union who opposed their efforts to destroy the Con- 
stitutional rights of the States, and change the Gov- 
ernment into a strong Central despotism. The leaders 
and men of the Democratic party, while anxious to 
strengthen the hands of the Government in every law- 
ful way, were unanimously opposed to a Federal Con- 
scription, as they believed it a violation of the Consti- 
tution, and an infringement of the rights of the States. 
The charge that the party was prompted to this course 
by hostilit}' to the Union and sympathy with Seces- 
sion, is as absurd as it is false, for thousands of Dem- 
ocratic soldiers and sailors were already in the service, 
thousands were daily following their example, and 
among the most gallant leaders of the Union armies 
and navy were many of the brightest and most j^opular 
names in the Democratic party. The truth is simply 
this : the party was anxious to preserve the Union as 
a free and liberal Government, and they believed this 
could be done as well by respecting and enforcing the 
provisions of the Constitution, as by violating and 
destroying them. They were willing and anxious to 
give, as they had done, their support to any measures 
for raising troops that the States might see fit to 
adopt, but they were unwilling that the Federal Gov- 
ernment should enforce a draft, and as they believed 
such a course on its part unconstitutional, they urged 
that steps should be taken by the people of the re- 
spective States, to test its Constitutionality. The views 
of the party were well expressed by the New Yorlc 
World, 



78 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

The despatches from Mr. Lincoln, the letter of Mr. 
Stanton, and the extracts from Republican journals, 
which we have given elsewhere, show the strong sense 
of the Republican party of the value of the services 
rendered by Governor Seymour in the hour of extreme 
peril ; but the moment that this danger was dissipated by 
the defeat of Lee at Gettysburg, there was a change 
in the tone and temper of the leading Republicans 
towards one they had so lately lauded for his patriot- 
ism. It is one of the sad facts which will stand out 
in the history of the rebellion, that the party in power 
showed itself arrogant and tyrannical in success, but 
abject and fawning in moments of alarm. When our 
armies were defeated, and invasions threatened, they 
implored men to forget all party differences, to rally in 
support of the Union, and nothing could exceed their 
laudations when these appeals were responded to. 
When the united efforts of all parties had saved our 
country, again they became malignant, abusive, and 
threatening in their language towards their political 
opponents. Their treatment of Governor Seymour is 
a marked instance of these alternations of violent 
abuse and unstinted praise. Mr. Greeley and other- 
leading Republicans felt that his conduct during the 
invasion of Pennsylvania had given him a strong hold 
upon public confidence and regard. From the hour 
of the defeat of Lee, on the 3d of July, they began a 
system of misrepresentation. Not content with dis- 
torting his speeches and misstating his position, they 
determined to go farther. The troops which went to 
the rescue of Pennsylvania were mainly from the city 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 79 

of New York, but forgetting every thing in their desire 
to hold political power, they resolved to place that city 
under martial law. The proposed conscription had 
excited deep feeling throughout the North. This feel- 
ing was naturally most intense at the great centres of 
population. While the military of the city w^ere still 
in Pennsylvania, while its forts and its arsenals had 
been stripped of their men, who had been hurried 
away to reenforce Gen. Meade, without giving notice 
to Governor Seymour, or to General Wool, who was 
in command at that point, or to the Mayor of the city, 
or its police department, one of the provost-marshals 
commenced the draft. He began the drawing on Sat- 
urday, so that the names of the conscripts were pub- 
lished in the papers issued on Sunday morning. 

On that day, as the citizens were not engaged in 
their ordinary pursuits, the draft was the topic of dis- 
cussion in the groups of men who assembled in the 
streets or at other points where they were accustomed 
to meet. Most of those whose names were drawn from 
the wheel, were of one nationality. The draft was made 
in a district where the enrolment was grossly unjust. If 
there was no design in all this to excite disorder, there 
was certainly a stupid disregard of all prudence and pro- 
priety. It is certain that the riot which was brought 
about in this way, was made the pretext by the Repub- 
lican leaders for demanding that the city should be 
placed under martial law, and that the rightful civil 
authorities should be deprived of their jurisdiction. 
The suspicion that mischief was designed from the 
outset is strengthened by the fact that the statements 



80 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

put forth by the Provost-Marshal General at Washington 
with regard to the notice of the draft were disingen- 
uous and calculated to mislead the public. The rage 
and malice of the Republican journals grew higher and 
fiercer as the popular disturbance was put down bj- the 
civil authorities. From the first moment they labored 
to excite the public mind, they tried to embarrass Gov- 
ernor Seymour in his effbrts to restore order, they in- 
dulged in gross falsehoods, and denied truths which 
were calculated to calm the excitement. Not content 
with assailing the Governor of the State, they also 
attacked every official of the city, or of the General 
Government who cooperated with him. They urged 
General Wool to declare martial law. When he 
refused to do this, they commenced intrigues for his 
removal, and another was put in his place because he 
would not become an instrument in their hands to 
overthrow the civil authority in a city which had done 
more by its contributions of men and money to uphold 
the Government than any other community in our 
broad land. The following extracts from the New 
York Tribune show not only the spirit that animated 
that jom'nal, but also its oj)en declarations that martial 
law should be declared in the city of New York at 
the very moment it had sent out its citizens in answer 
to the entreaties of the President that New York 
would help to turn back the invasion of a Sister State. 
While the policy of Governor Seymour thwarted this 
conspiracy, it was never entirely abandoned. After 
the riot was put down, statements signed by leading 
Hepublicans, were sent to Washington, charging Gov- 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 81 

ernor Seymour with the most absurd and criminal 
purposes. Before acting upon these charges, the Pres- 
ident and the War Department determined to look into 
them and to find out the truth. A high official was 
privately sent to the city of New York to investigate 
the whole subject, and he reported to the President that 
the statements made by the leading Republicans were 
untrue and unfounded. The following are the extracts 
referred to : 

" We do not know how far the Government has 
been made acquainted with the state of affairs in this 
city, or whether they know any thing about it further 
than is to be learned from the public press. But if 
they depend upon that source of information, we beg 
to assure them of one fact of vital moment, that is, 
that this district is in lamentable want of a military 
commander. We yield to none in respect for the 
past services of General Wool, but these are not 
times to sacrifice present interests to a respect for a 
reputation earned in years that are past. General 
Wool is now a very old man, and has neither the 
physical ability nor the mental resources to meet the 
fearful emergency into which we have been precipi- 
tated by the machinations of the treacherous ' Cop- 
perheads ' and their organs. He clearly does not 
comprehend either the magnitude or the character of 
the crisis, and failing to do this, he as necessarily 
fails to delegate the proper authority and reponsibil- 
ity to younger and more active men, who, if left to 
themselves even, might prove quite equal to the de- 
mands of the moment. That moment demands wis- 
6 



82 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

dom, energy, promptness, and above all, the courage 
of a true soldier, who, recoo-nizino; that a real battle 
is before him, with a desperate and savage, though un- 
disciplined force, hesitates not an instant to use the 
means at his command to defeat and exterminate it." 

" The military power of the National Government 
must enforce the draft. We tell the President plainly, 
if it is possible he can need to be told, that unless 
vigorous measures are adopted in season, he must 
expect to witness another, and beyond doubt a better 
organized, more extensive, and infinitely more danger- 
ous insurrection than has yet occurred. Martial law 
and the means of enforcing it, soldiers, and a gene- 
ral of courage and capacity, will secure the execution 
of the draft, and they only will secure it. Will the 
Government be warned in time ? " 

The crimmal folly of the Government brought 
about its true results. When the draft was resumed 
on Monday morning an attack was made on the 
Provost-MarshaFs office, every thing in it was de- 
stroyed, and the officials were badly beaten. A cry 
was then raised to burn the building, and the ruffians 
poured camphene over the lower floor, and set fire 
to it, and in a few minutes the place was in flames. 
The alarm of fire was sounded, and the fire brigade, 
under Chief Engineer Decker, promply arrived on 
the spot, but the rioters seized the hydrant and drove 
the firemen away from them. Mr. Decker coura- 
geously threw himself into the crowd, and by his exer- 
tions and appeals to the mob, succeeded in inducing 
them to allow the engines to be worked. It was too 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 83 

late, however, and in two hours from the beginning 
of the outbreak, the entire block of which the Provost- 
Marshal's office was the corner building, w^as in ashes. 
Mr. Kennedy, the Chief of Police, also exerted him- 
self gallantly to check the disorder, but was badly 
beaten. 

While these things were going on in the upper part 
of the city, another mob collected lower down town, 
and commenced a course of indiscriminate violence 
and plunder. Citizens were attacked, beaten, and 
robbed — no mercy being shown to any one thus as- 
sailed. A reporter of the New York Times was cruelly 
beaten and robbed of his watch and valuables. He 
Avas rescued from his assailants by some firemen and 
taken to a neio;hborino; eno-ine-house. This buildins; 
was immediately attacked, and had not some incident 
drawn the mob away from it, the unfortunate reporter 
would doubtless have been murdered. 

Matters were serious, indeed. The city was almost 
defenceless. The militia regiments had been sent to 
Pennsylvania by the Governor, and there were no 
troops on the island. Officers of all grades there were 
in abundance, but few men to sustain them. General 
Wool, of the regular army, was in command of the 
city and its defences, and Major-General Sandford, of 
the militia, was the commander of the State troops of 
the first division, almost all of whom, as we have said, 
were on duty in Pennsylvania. As soon as the news 
of the riot became known, these gentlemen and the 
mayor of the city, Mr. Opdyke, met to concert meas- 
ures to check the disturbance. The task before them 



84 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

was one of great difficulty. There were very few men 
in the city capable of bearing arms, who could be re- 
lied upon, and the force at the various harbor defences, 
and at the navy }'ard, was very small. The city was 
completely panic stricken. Business of all kinds was 
suspended, and the trouble was increasing. Those who 
knew the character of the mob, were filled with great 
alarm. As the best that could be done, the police 
were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to dis- 
perse the rioters, the commandant of the navy yard 
was called on for a detachment of marines, the same 
demand made upon the commanders of the forts, and 
the news of the riot and the defenceless condition of 
the city telegraphed to Washington and to Albany. 
General Wool, as commander of the Department of 
the East, issued the following call to " veteran volun- 
teers : " 

"The veterans who have recently returned from 
the field of battle, have again an opportunity of ser\^- 
ing, not only their country, but the great emporium of 
New York, from the threatened dangers of a ruthless 
mob. 

"The Commanding General 01^ the Eastern Depart- 
ment trusts that those who have exhibited so much 
bravery in the field of battle, will not hesitate to come 
forward at this time, to tender their services to the 
mayor, to stay the ravages of the city by men who 
have lost all sense of obligations to their country, as 
well as to the city of New York. 

" JoH^q- E. Wool, Major-General. 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 85 

"P. S. — These men are requested to report to 
Major- General Sanclford, corner of Elm and White 
streets, on Tuesday, July 14th, at 10 a. m." 

The Board of Aldermen of the city met at half- 
past one o'clock in the afternoon, but soon after ad- 
journed, as there was no quorum present. It was 
generally believed that some decisive action on the 
part of the city authorities for the purpose of ajiding 
the poorer conscripts in providing substitutes, would 
check the riot, and Alderman Hall proposed a measure 
to that effect; upon which, however, no action was 
taken that day. 

Meanwhile, the mob that had burned the Provost- 
Marshal's office, had increased in numbers. The thieves 
and malefactors of the city joined themselves to the 
rioters in the hope of reaping a rich harvest of plun- 
der, which expectation was fully realized. They gath- 
ered in force in the vicinity of Forty- Sixth street and 
Third Avenue, and detachments of the main body set 
lire to and plundered several fine brown-stone resi- 
dences on Lexington Avenue. While this was going 
on, a detachment of about fifty marines from the 
Brookly]! Navy Yard, in charge of a lieutenant, was 
seen approaching in a Third Avenue horse-car. The 
mob at once prepared to receive them. Tearing up 
the rails, they rendered it impossible for the car to be 
drawn beyond Forty-Third street, and at that point, 
several thousand men, women, and children stood anx- 
iously waiting for the storming party of fifty. Many 
of them, particularly the women, were armed with 



86 LITE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

pieces of thick, telegraph wire, which they had broken 
from the lines, and which, as will be seen, they used 
with great effect. Such a scene has rarely been wit- 
nessed ; the men were sober and quiet, but malig'nant 
and fearful in their aspect; the women, on the con- 
trary, Avere merry, singing and dancing ; they cheered 
their husbands, chatted gaily with bystanders, and 
boasted of what should yet be done by their brawny 
arms. As the car, containing the marines, reached 
the centre of the block, the lieutenant in command or- 
dered the men to leave and form in line. Small groups 
and gatherings of women and children greeted them 
with hisses and derisive cheers ; to these they paid no 
attention, but marched toward the larger mob at the 
corner. The lieutenant called upon the crowd to dis- 
perse, but no further notice was taken of the command 
than a sullen refusal. He then ordered his men to fire, 
which they did, with blank cartridges, and of course, 
with blank effect. The smoke had not cleared away 
before the infuriated mob rushed with vengeance upon 
the little band, broke them into confusion, seized their 
muskets, trampled them under foot, beat them with 
sticks, punched them with the long wires, and laughed 
at their impotence. Several of the marines managed 
to escape into the side streets, but each fugitive had 
his gang of temporary pursuers, and quite a number 
were killed, while all were terribly beaten. From this 
moment the spirit of the mob seemed changed. Ke- 
sistance was no lonjrer thous^ht of: attack was the 
watchword. A squad of police attempted to arrest 
some of the ringleaders at this point, but they were 



THE DKAFT RIOTS. 87 

signally defeated, badly beaten, and one of them was 
killed. Elated with this triumph, excited by the 
spilled blood, and the instinct of passion, the mob 
seemed beside themselves, and proposed an immediate 
onslaught upon the principal streets, the hotels, and 
other public buildings. 

Soon after this, the Colored Orphan Asylum, a 
handsome edifice, situated on Fifth Avenue, between 
Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets, was attacked by 
the mob. This building contained at the time between 
700 and 800 children, and one would have thought 
that the helplessness of these little ones would have 
been an ample protection to them. It was not so, 
however. Elated by the defeat of the marines, the 
rioters hurried to Fifth Avenue, and surrounded the 
asylum. The doors and windows were broken in, and 
the ruffians rushed into the building. They drove the 
women and nurses out, kicked and beat the helpless 
children, seized everything they could lift, threw their 
plunder into the streets, where it was collected and 
carried off by their women, and then set fire to the 
buildino;. Chief Eno'ineer Decker, who had followed 
the mob from Third Avenue, now rushed into the 
building, extinguished the flames, and drove the riot- 
ers back. His efforts were in vain, however. The 
boys fired the building in another quarter, protected in 
their infamous work by the men, and the Asylum was 
soon in a mass of flames. Having accomplished this, 
the mob gathered up its plunder, and withdrew to 
another part of the city. 

While this was going on another band of rioters 



88 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOrR. 

made a furious attack upon the State Armory, situated 
at the corner of Twenty-First street and Second Ave- 
nue, in the effort to get possession of the arms which 
the Government had stored in that building. The 
armory was in charge of a squad of policemen, who had 
orders from the city authorities to prevent the entrance 
of any person. The mob at this point numbered sev- 
eral thousand determined men, and it w^as plain that 
the police would be forced to yield. Finding the 
building closed against them, the rioters broke down 
the doors with sledge hammers and stones, and rushed 
in. The police received them with a discharge from 
their pistols, which killed two men. The mob swayed 
back at this, but in an instant rushed in again. The 
police fired another volley, killing three more men. 
The rioters, undismayed by this, dashed at the brave 
little garrison, and a severe hand to hand fight ensued, 
in which the police, bemg outnumbered, were forced 
to make their escape by a back door. Having thus 
secured the building, the mob fired it and burned it to 
the ground. 

About noon, the oflice of Provost- IMarshal Manierre, 
at the corner of Broadway and Twenty-Eighth street, 
was sacked and set on fire, and the entire block, of 
which this was the centre building, was destroyed. A 
demand w^as made upon the proprietor of the fiimous 
BulFs Head Tavern, on Forty-Fourth street, between 
Lexington and Fourth Avenues, that he should furnish 
liquor to the croAvd. He refused to do so, and his 
house was plundered and destroyed by fire. The re- 
sidences of Provost-Marshal Jenkins, Post-Master 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 89 

Wakeman, and several other buildings were also 
burned. 

About five o'clock the mob moved down from 
Forty-Sixth street to the City Hall Park, where they 
were joined by a detachment of hoys and men who had 
gathered in front of the Tribune office, where they had 
been frightening Mr. Greeley and his associates with 
their yells and groans. This demonstration had been 
harmless, however, but now a rush was made at the 
office, the doors were burst open, the inmates put to 
flight, the furniture of the lower room broken to pieces, 
and preparations made to burn the building. This 
outrage was prevented by the sudden arrival of a de- 
tachment of police, who made a gallant charge upon 
the crowd, drove them oif, and saved the building. 
This movement of the police was so sudden and vigor- 
ous that it struck terror to the rioters, and they fled in 
every direction. 

The negroes were the especial objects of the fury of 
the mob. During the day at least a dozen were brutal- 
ly murdered. Others were driven into the river, 
beaten, or forced to leave the city. Whenever a negro 
was so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the mob, 
he "was treated with the most savage cruelty. The 
rioters seemed to lose all humanity when dealing with 
the blacks. Indeed, their conduct toward all their vic- 
tims, both white and black, was as cowardly as it was 
inhuman. 

Throughout the whole day the city was practically 
at the mercy of the mob, and but for the police force, 
the only organized resistance which could be opposed 



90 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

to tlie ruffians, the damage done would have been much 
gi'eater. The police did their whole duty nobly. They 
made frequent attacks upon the mob in the streets, al- 
ways winning the victory and preventing further out- 
rage, and during the entire day and night of the loth 
they alone protected the city. 

As soon as Governor Seymour was informed of the 
condition of affairs in New York,* he left Albany and 

* The subjoined article is taken from the Cincinnati Enquirer. It 
is written, says that paper, by a gentleman who was in the employ of the 
Telegraph Company in New York at the time of the riots, and who speaks 
from his own knowledge of the facts of the case : 

CixciXNATi, July 21, 1868. 
To the Editor of the Enqmrer : 

The Radical papers of this and other cities seem to find in the July 
(1863) riots of New York, a sweet morsel for rolling under their tongues 
when all other subjects for vituperation of Governor Seymour fail. From 
constant contact with the virulent properties of the aforesaid tongues for 
falsity and misrepresentation they seem to gain new strength and comfort, 
and like the old gentleman famous for Munchausen stories, the oftener 
they repeat the tale the more they seem to believe it themselves. These 
journals seem to delight in fathering the riots of those days on Governor 
Seymour, and maliciously and falsely charging that no attempt was made 
by Governor Seymour to suppress the mobs. The position which I held 
at the time in New York State gives me the opportunity of making a state- 
ment in contradiction of these charges, which, if necessary, can be veri- 
fied by several gentlemen, Republicans and Democrats, who were asso- 
ciated with me at the time. It is well known that among the first acts 
of the rioters was the destruction of all, or nearly all, the telegraph wires 
leading from the city to the Capital at Albany, thus hoping to cut otf 
means of communication between the Governor and the municipal au- 
thorities from the Adjutant-General's office in Albany, from whence orders 
for the movement of troops would be issued. Every wire was cut, the 
poles thrown for a great distance through the streets, with the single ex- 
ception of one wire connecting Jersey City with New York, through a 
cable unknown to the mob. This wire was owned by the Erie Railroad, 
and intended for their business alone. Governor Seymour took posses- 
sion of this line, and in the language of telegraphers kept it red hot for 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 91 

hastened to the scene of danger, reaching the city on 
Monday night. On the morning of the 14th he issued 
the following proclamation : 

three days and nights, transmitting orders for his Adjutant-General, hy 
the circuitous route from Jersey City via Binghamton to Utiea, New 
York, and from thence back to Albany, for the organization and imme- 
diate marcbing orders of a sufficient force of State militia to quell the dis- 
turbance. In a very short time companies and regiments were formed 
and sent forward without delay, many of them composed in part or wholly 
of the "brutal Irishmen" that haunt our Radical friends' slumbers. 
Everything that was possible was done with the limited and uncertain 
means of communication in the hands of the Governor. "While the Re- 
publican Mayor, Opdyke, was trembling in his shoes behind tlie City Hall 
doors, Governor Seymour, alone and unprotected, stood manfully forth, 
and by the use of calm words recalled the insane rioters to a sense of 
their duty as citizens, promising them that claims should be heard and 
their wrongs, if any existed, should be righted. His cool manner and 
earnest assurances of his intention to investigate any grounds they had 
for complaint, had the effect of quieting tlie passions of a populace in a 
manner that could not have been done by three times their number of 
armed men. Yet these Radical papers, from behind their breastworks 
of print-paper with coffee-mill rifles for defence, set up a howl of rage 
because this one man did not stand there and denounce the rioters as 
thieves, cut-throats, murderers, incendiaries, and such like invectives. 
The effect of such language upon a mass of people excited to feelings worse 
than insanity itself by real or imaginary wrongs, would have been like 
adding fuel to the fire. Numerous were the verbal and written expres- 
sions of gratitude received from the citizens of New York for his efforts 
in quelling the riot — prominent among them the names of gentlemen Avho, 
though they differed from him in political views, yet had the manliness 
to express their thanks and appreciation of efforts which were and are 
continually being denied by those who knew nothing of the facts, or per- 
verted what they did know. The citizens of Central New York, regard- 
less of politics, know and respect Horatio Seymour as a Christian gentle- 
man, against whom charges of complicity in, and encouragement of, riot- 
ism and mob law rebound to the injury of the authors of such falsehoods. 
After the fall of Vicksburg, when the Eastern troops were being sent 
home via the New York Central Railroad, dying by the score on the route 
for want of proper food, rest, and medical attendance, Governor Seymour 



92 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

"New York, July Uth, 1863. 
" To the People of the City of New York: 

" A riotous demonstration in your city, originating 
in opposition to the conscription of soldiers for the mili- 
tary service of the United States, has SNvelled into vast 
proportions, directing its fury against the property 
and lives of peaceful citizens. I know that many who 
have participated in these proceedings w^ould not have 
allowed themselves to be carried to such extremes of 
violence and of wrong, except under an apprehension 
of injustice, but such persons are reminded that the 
only opposition to the conscription which can be allowed, 
is an appeal to the courts. 

and his brother, Hon. John F. Seymour, wliile returning from a mission- 
ary Sunday-school, near Utica, one Sunday evening, suggested to the 
writer of this article and some other friends that the soldiers be fed and 
cared for on their passage through the city. Tlie idea was acted upon at 
once. In two hours a regiment was expected. Mr. Seymour made a 
detail to solicit contributions of food, coffee, tea, wines, cordials, etc., for 
the soldiers, and by the time the regiment arrived more than sufBcient 
was collected to feed and refresh the worn-out and haggard-lookiug men. 
Several were taken from the train and cared for in the city until they re- 
covered, at Mr. Seymour's expense. This impromptu suggestion led to 
the formation of a society, with Mr. Seymour at its head, that provided 
refreshments and medical care for twenty-five or thirty regiments from 
Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and other States. 
Mr. John F. Seymour, a gentleman of the same political opinions as his 
brother, was State Agent for New York in the Army of the Potomac 
during the war, and by his care and attention to the soldiers in that army, 
gained for himself and the State authorities manifold blessings from the 
thousands whose lives were saved and health regained by his personal 
devotion to their wants. Hundreds of mothers and children blessed him 
from their hearts for restoring to their lives and homes the only ones 
whom they had to care for and protect them ; and yet he, like his brother, 
was called a copperhead, traitor, and rebel sympathizer, by the Radicals, 
because lie dared to differ from the powers that were in political views. 
Out upon such Pharisees ! 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 93 

" The right of every citizen to make such an appeal 
will be maintained, and the decision of the courts must 
be respected and obeyed by rulers and people alike. 
No other course is consistent with the maintenance of 
the laws, the peace and order of the city, and the safety 
of its inhabitants. 

" Kiotous proceedings must, and shall, be put down. 
The laws of the State of New York must be enforced, 
its peace and order maintained, and the lives and prop- 
erty of all its citizens protected at any and every haz- 
ard. The rights of every citizen will be properly 
guarded and defended by the Chief Magistrate of the 
State. 

" I do, therefore, call upon all persons engaged in 
these riotous proceedings, to retire to their homes and 
employments, declaring to them that unless they do 
so at once, I shall use all the power necessary to re- 
store the peace and order of the city. I also call upon 
all well-disposed persons not enrolled for the preserva- 
tion of order, to pursue their ordinary avocations. 

" Let all citizens stand firmly by the constituted au- 
thorities, sustaining law and order in the city, and 
ready to answer any such demand as circumstances 
may render necessary for me to make upon their servi- 
ces ; and they may rely upon a rigid enforcement of 
the laws of this State against all who violate them. 
"Horatio Seymour, Governor." 

This proclamation produced no effect upon the 
mob, and it soon became evident to the Governor that 
he would be compelled to use more severe measures 



94 LIFE OF HOEATIO SEYMOUR. 

for the repression of the disorders. He at once issued 
the following proclamation, declaring the city in a state 
of insurrection : 

"New York, July lUli, 18G3. 

"TT7?ercas, It is manifest that combinations for for- 
cible resistance to the laws of the State of New York 
and the execution of civil and criminal process exist 
in the city and county of New York, whereby the peace 
and safety of the city, and the lives and property of its 
inhabitants, are endangered ; and 

" Jlliereas, The power of the said city and county 
has been exerted and is not sufficient to enable the 
officers of the said city and county to maintain the 
laws of the State and execute the legal process of its 
officers ; and 

" TP7ie?'eas, Application has been made to me by the 
sheriff of the city and county of New York, to declare 
the said city and county to be in a state of insur- 
rection ; 

" Now therefore, I, Horatio Seymour, Governor of 
the State of New York, and commander-in-chief of the 
forces of the same, do in its name, and by its authority, 
issue this proclamation, in accordance with the statute 
in such case made and provided, and do hereby de- 
clare the city and county of New York to be in a 
state of insurrection, and give notice to all persons that 
the means provided by the laws of this State for the 
maintenance of law and order will be employed to 
^vhatever degree may be necessary, and that all persons 
who shall, after the publication of this proclamation, 
resist, or aid and assist in resisting, any force ordered 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 95 

out by the Governor to quell or suppress such insur- 
rection, will render themselves liable to the penalties 
prescribed by law. 

"Horatio Seymour." 

This proclamation was as impotent as the other. 
The riot had become too formidable, and the rioters 
too much emboldened to be put down by any thing but 
brute force. 

On Tuesday morning, July 14th, the city was 
gloomy enough. The stores were closed, business was 
suspended every where, and the citizens were preparing 
each one to make such defence of his home and prop- 
erty as lay in his power. The police had been inde- 
fatigable in their exertions during the night ; but it was 
evident that these brave fellows would not be able to 
contend successfully with the miscreants for an in- 
definite time. General Wool had placed General Har- 
vey Brown in command of the city, and had also given 
the same command to General Sandford ; and this con- 
fusion led to difficulties during the day which were 
almost fatal to the cause of order. The commandinof 
officers of the various harbor forts had sent detach- 
ments to the place of rendezvous appointed by General 
Sandford, and a small force of militia and volunteers 
had been collected, so that the authorities were now in 
a condition to make some progress in restoring order. 

The rioters had been greatly reinforced during the 
night, however, and early in the morning resumed 
their outrages. They directed their hostility princi- 
pally against the negroes. No mercy was shown to 



9G LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the blacks. Their neighborhoods were invaded, many 
buildings fired, and old men and feeble women beaten 
most brutally. Wherever a negro was caught by the 
rioters, he was murdered. 

During the day. Colonel O'Brien, at the head of a 
detachment of his regiment succeeded in dispersing a 
mob on Third Avenue. In the confusion of the charge, 
he sprained his ankle, and went into a drug store in 
Thirty-Second street to rest, while his command fol- 
lowed up the rioters. After the troops passed on, a 
crowd collected around the store, and the proprietor, 
fearing that his property would be destroyed, requested 
the Colonel to leave the place. O'Brien at once com- 
plied with his request, and went out into the street 
alone, but undaunted. He was instantly received by 
the mob with abuse for his course in dispersing their 
friends. He answered them calmly, and urged them 
to go home and submit to the laws ; but while he was 
speaking, some cowardly ruffian crept behind him and 
struck him a blow, which laid him senseless upon the 
ground. The brutal crowd instantly fell upon him and 
beat him unmercifully ; and seizing his almost lifeless 
body, dragged it through the streets with shouts and 
groans for several hours, and finally dragged it in front 
of his residence, where they heaped the most brutal in- 
sults upon it. A priest of the Catholic Church, cour- 
ageously forced his way through the crowd, and read 
over the body the prayers for the dying. This done, 
he ordered the remains to be taken into the house, and 
hastened away to another point where he hoped to do 
good ; but he had hardly departed when a brutal sav- 



THE DEAFT RIOTS. 97 

age stamped upon the corpse, which was also done by 
many others. 

The military were very active during the day, and 
several conflicts occurred between them and the mob, 
in which the latter were invariably defeated. A crowd 
of about two thousand men had collected at the corner 
of Grand and Pitt streets. Lieutenant Wood, with 
one hundred and fifty regulars from Fort Lafayette, 
was sent to clear the street. Upon reaching the place, 
he ordered the crowd to disperse, and was answered 
with a volley of paving stones. He then caused his 
men to fire over the heads of the rioters, with the hope 
of intimidating them ; but this producing no eff'ect, he 
ordered the troops to fire with ball-cartridges. Twelve 
persons were killed and several wounded by this dis- 
charge, and the rioters fled in every direction. Two 
children were among the killed. In various parts of 
the city, effbrts were made b}^ the mob to resist the 
troops ; but as soon as ball-cartridges were used by the 
latter, all resistance ceased. 

In this way, the trouble was made less formidable ; 
but still, as the crowds would reassemble immediately 
after being dispersed, the authorities found that it 
would be necessary to adopt some more extensive plan 
of operations. The militia regiments Avhich had been 
sent to Pennsylvania had been ordered home by the 
Secretary of War, and other troops were on their way 
to the city from Meade's army, as were also the militia 
from the interior of the State. Still, it was necessary 
to act promptly ; for much damage might be done by 
the mob before this aid arrived. 
7 



98 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

About noon, a large crowd had assembled in front 
of the Tribune office. These people made no unlawful 
demonstration, though a man was haranguing them, 
and uro-iiio; them to attack the Trihunc office. At this 
moment. Governor Seymour, who had been urged by 
leading citizens to address the crowd, appeared on the 
steps of the City Hall, and instantly the crowd ran 
over to the Park, and surrounding the place where 
the Governor was standing, called on him for a speech. 
His remarks were judicious and well chosen. His first 
duty was to soothe the excitements then prevailing in 
the city ; and he knew that this could be done only by 
the use of temperate and calm language. Threats of 
force would only inflame the crowd still more ; and it 
was particularly desirable to quiet them at the cost of 
as little bloodshed as possible. He said : 

" My Friends : I have come down here from the quiet 
of the country to see what was the difficulty — to learn 
what all this trouble was concerning the Draft. Let 
me assure you that I am your friend. [Uproarious 
cheering.] You have been my friends — [cries of ' Yes,' 
' Yes,' ' That's so : ' ' We are, and will be again'] — and 
now I assure you, my fellow citizens, that I am here 
to show you a test of my friendship. [Cheers,] I 
wish to inform you that I have sent my Adjutant- Gen- 
eral to Washington to confer with the authorities 
there, and to have this Draft suspended and stopped. 
[Vociferous cheers.] I now ask you, as good citizens, 
to wait for his return ; and I assure you that I will do 
all that I can to see that there is no inequality, and no 
wrong done any one. I wish you to take good care 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 99 

of all property as good citizens, and see that every 
person is safe. The safe-keeping of property and persons 
rests with }'ou ; and I charge you to disturb neither. 
It is your duty to maintain the good order of the city, 
and I know you will do it. I wish you now to separate 
as good citizens, and you can assemble again whenever 
you wish to do so. I ask you to leave all to me now, 
and I will see to your rights. Wait until my Adjutant 
returns from Washington, and you shall be satisfied. 
Listen to me, and see that no harm is done to either 
persons or property, but retire peaceably." 

He also read the following letter, showing the ac- 
tion he had taken respecting the draft : 

"New York, July Utk, 1863. 
" My Dear Sir : I have received your note about 
the draft. On Saturday last, I sent my Adjutant- 
General to Washington for the purpose of urging a 
suspension of the draft, for I know that the city of 
New York can furnish its full quota by volunteering, 
I have received a dispatch from General Sj:)rague 
that the draft is suspended. There is no doubt the 
conscription is postponed. I learn this from a num- 
ber of sources. If I get any information of a change 
of policy at Washington, I will let you know. 

" Truly yours, 

" Horatio Seymour:. 
"Hon. Samuel Sloan, President of the Hudson River 
Railroad Company, New York." 

The Governor was listened to ^vith profound atten- 
tion, and the reading of the above letter gave great 



100 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

satisfiiction to his hearers. His speech was spread 
rapidly through the city, and there can be no doubt 
that it aided very greatly in inducing the inen to aban- 
don the riot. 

Certain Kepublican politicians, anxious to destroy 
the influence and good name of Mr. Seymour, have 
affected to see in this speech a yielding to the mob, 
and a hostility to the Union cause. Mr. Greeley says : 

" The most objectionable feature of this brief ad- 
dress was not its initial salutation, but its underlying 
assumption that order and obedience to law were sus- 
pended on the stoppage of the Draft. True, he did 
not in tenns say, ' It would be right to riot, and burn 
buildings, and hunt negroes, ^and slaughter oflEicers, if 
the Draft were to go on ; but I will have it stopped 
and given up : so go home and keep the peace ; ' but, 
to the minds of the rioters, his speech amounted exactly 
to that. Hence, there w^as great danger that tranquil- 
lity thus attained would be broken whenever the at- 
tempt to enforce the Draft should be renewed. And 
it was already well imderstood — indeed, it had been 
proposed to prominent Republicans the clay before — 
that, if they would promise that the Draft should be 
arrested, the riots should thereupon be stopped." 

The petty malice of this attack needs no comment, 
yet we must say it comes in bad taste from one, the 
salvation of whose property was the immediate and 
first consequence of the speech. 

Tlie Albany Evening Journal, of July 13th, 1868, 
states the views of the Radicals still more strongly. 
It says : 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 101 

" Then came the riots. Seymour went clown there. 
Had it been Andrew Jackson, instead, there Avould 
have been no palaver with the bloody criminals. He 
would have dispersed them, by some other method, 
than by promising them all they asked. * '•' '•'• 
Look at the scene. Hebel armies mustering ; rebel con- 
scripts hastening to the field ; rebel energies gather- 
ing. On the other hand — a bleeding Union, a pal- 
sied army, brave and daring, but reduced. A nation 
calls for help. It decrees assistance. A yelping crew, 
filled with the spirit of rebellion, thirsty for blood, 
fired with rage, resist their country's pleas and 
demands, and assail the officers of the nation and the 
innocent poor of their city. What does Horatio Sey- 
mour do ? Does he point them to the obligations 
of the citizen, the dangers of the nation, and their 
imperilled brethren of the army ? Not at all." 

We cannot better refute this slander than by quo- 
ting the remarks of this same Albany Evening Journal., 
printed in July, 1863, just after the occurrence of the 
riots. They are as follows : 

" Governor Seymour, in so promptly ' declaring 
the city in a state of insurrection,' contributed largely 
to the suppression of the mob. It gave immediate 
legal efficiency to the military arm, and enabled the 
civil authorities to use that power with terrible effect. 
It showed also, that it was Governor Seymour s pur- 
pose to give ' no quarter ' to the ruffians who seized 
upon the occasion of a popular excitement to rob and 
murder. The exercise of the power thus called into 
service v/as effective. The ' insurrection ' has been 



102 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

quelled- The mob has been overpowered. Law and 
order have triumphed, and the riotously disposed every- 
where have received a lesson which they will not soon 
foro-et." 

The reader can form his o^\ni opinion of these at- 
tacks. To our mind, as they are the ablest that have 
been made, they afford the best vindication of his con- 
duct that Mr. Seymour or his friends could desire. 

The speech, as we have said, was the most judicious 
that could have been delivered. The reader must re- 
member that the Governor was not addressing a parcel 
of rioters. The men to whom he spoke, had not been 
guilty, as far as could be judged, of any unlawful dem- 
onstration. They believed the draft unjust and an 
outrage upon them, and they were, at the time of the 
announcement of the Governor's presence, merely dis- 
cussing what they believed to be their gricA'an- 
ces, and their most lawless act had consisted of hissing 
and yelling at the Tribune office. This may have been 
a crime in the eyes of the frightened inmates of that 
building, but it was not so in the eyes of the law. The 
Governor had no reason to think them rioters, for there 
was no charge that they had been guilty of any out- 
rages uj) to that time, whatever they might have done, 
but for his presence and words, and he had no right to 
address them otherwise than as . citizens who believed 
themselves wronged. It was his duty to promise to 
investio;ate their "I'ievances. and assure them that he 
would protect their rights, and the best proof of the 
wisdom of his remarks is their effect upon the crowd. 

Nor was he the only person who believed concilia- 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 106 

tioii the best policy. On the 16th, the foUowmg notice 
was placarded about the city : 

" New York, July IQth, 1863. 

" To the men of New Yorh^ ivlio are noio called in 
many of the papers rioters : 

" Men ! I am not able, owing to the rheumatism 
in my limbs, to visit you; but that is not a reason 
why you should not pay me a visit in your whole 
strength. Come, then, to-morrow (Friday) at two 
o"* clock, to my residence, northwest corner of Madison 
Avenue and Thirty -Sixth street. I shall have a speech 
prepared for you. 

" There is abundant space for the meeting around 
my house. I can address you from the comer of the 
balcony. If I should be unable to stand durmg its 
delivery, you will permit me to address you sitting ; 
my voice is much stronger than my limbs. I take 
upon myself the responsibility of assuring you that, 
in paying me this visit, or in retiring from it, you shall 
not be disturbed by any exhibition of municipal or 
military presence. You who are Catholics, or as many 
of you as are, have a right to visit your bishop with- 
out molestation. + John Hughes, 

" Archbishop of New York." 

When, the next day, nearly five thousand persons 
surrounded the residence of the Archbishop, he ap- 
peared on the balcony, clad in the vestments of his 
high office, accompanied by many of the priests and 
leadin2: Catholic citizens of New York. He bes-an 
his remarks by saying, " They call you rioterSy' and 



104 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

proceeded to tell them he was their father. Referring 
to the riots, he said : 

" In the case of a violent and unjust assault upon 
you without provocation, my notion is, that every man 
has a right to defend his house or his shanty at the 
risk of his life. The cause, however, must be just. 
It must be defensive, not offensive. Do you want my 
advice ? I have been hurt by the report that you are 
rioters. You cannot imagine that I could hear those 
things without being pained grievously. Is there not 
some way by which you can stop these proceedings, 
and support the laws, of which none have been enacted 
against you as Irishmen and Catholics ? You have 
suffered enough already. No Government can stand 
or protect itself unless it protects its citizens. Milita- 
ry force will be let loose on you, and you know what 
that is. The innocent will be shot down, and the 
guilty are likely to escape. Would it not be better 
for you to retire quietly ; not to give up your princi- 
ples or convictions, but to keep out of the crowd where 
immortal souls are launched into eternity, and, at all 
events, get into no trouble till you are at home? 
AYould it not be better ? There is one thing in wliich 
I would ask your advice ; when these so-called riots are 
over, and the blame is justly laid on Irish Catholics, I 
wish you to tell me in what country I could claim to 
be born ? (Voices, ' Ireland.') Yes, but what shall I 
say if these stories be true ? Ireland, that never com- 
mitted a single act of cruelty until she was oppressed 
— Ireland, that has been the mother of heroes and 
poets, but never the mother of cowards. I took upon 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 105 

myself to say that you should not be molested in pay- 
ing me a visit. I thank you for your kindness, and I 
hope nothing will occur till you return home, and if, 
by chance, as you go thither, you should meet a police 
officer or military man, why just — ^look at him." 

The effect of this speech was most happy. The 
five thousand men who had been draw^n out of the 
way of mischief by the call of the Archbishop, dis- 
persed peaceably to their homes. 

Now, in what respect was the speech of the Gov- 
ernor more reprehensible than that of the Archbishop ? 
Both were dictated by a profound wisdom, and the 
effect of each was the same. Both speakers knew that 
whether the grievances of the crowd were real or fancied, 
the only way to bring them back to the cause of order 
was to soothe them with kind words. The venerable 
Archbishop was too profound a student of human na- 
ture not to appreciate this. Further than this, his 
course was prompted by a direct request from Gov- 
ernor Seymour that he would use his influence to stop 
the disorders. No man will dare to charge him with 
cowardice, either physical or moral, for no truer spe- 
cimen of pure manhood ever lived. No man will dare 
to charge him with disloyalty to the Union, for his 
whole life, and more especially his services in behalf 
of recruitino- for the Federal armies, would cive the 
lie to such a charge ; and if his remarks were unob- 
jectionable there is no good reason why those of the 
Governor should be denounced. 

During the 15th several of the militia regiments 
returned from Pennsylvania, and these were followed 



lOG LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the next clay by others, and by regiments of veterans 
from Meade's Army. The ringleaders of the mob 
were arrested and imprisoned, and their followers dis- 
heartened and demoralized. The troops as soon as 
they arrived, were stationed throughout the city, and 
their vigilance and promptness, together with a general 
diffusion of the knowledge that the draft was suspend- 
ed for the time, soon put a stop to the disorder. By 
the night of the IGtli all organized resistance had 
ceased, but the city was patrolled by the troops for 
several days afterwards. The stages and cars, which 
had been withdrawn during the riot, were replaced on 
their routes on the 15th, on which day the Mayor of 
the City issued the following proclamation : 

"Mayor's Office, New York, 
July Ihth, 18G3. 
" To the Citizens of New York : 

" I am happy to announce to you that the riot 
which has for two days disgraced our city, has been in 
good measure subjected to the control of the public 
authorities. It would not have interrupted your peace 
for a day but for the temporary absence of all our or- 
ganized local militia. What now remains of the mob 
are fragments prowling about for plunder ; and for 
the purpose of meeting these, and saving the military 
and police from the exhaustion of continued move- 
ments, you are invited to form voluntary associations 
under competent leaders, to patrol and guard your va- 
rious districts. With these exceptions you, are again 
requested to resume your accustomed daily avocations. 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 107 

This is as necessary to your personal security as to the 
peace of the city. 

" The various lines of omnibuses, railways and tele- 
grams must be put in full operation immediately. Ad- 
equate military protection against their further inter- 
ruption will be furnished on application to the military 
authorities of the State. 

" Fellow citizens, the laws must and sliall bo 
obeyed ; public order shall not be broken with impunity. 
Our first duty now is to restore the public peace and 
preserve it unbroken, and to pursue and punish the 
offenders against the majesty of the laws. 

"George Opdyke, Mayor." 

Order was now restored. The city authorities ap- 
propriated a large sum to pay bounties to volunteers, 
wdio were immediately forthcoming, and the city's quota 
was soon filled without a renewal of the draft. 

"The number of persons killed during these terri- 
ble riots is not known. The mortality statistics for 
the week, at the city inspector s office, show an increase 
of 450 over the- average weekly mortality of the year. 
About 90 deaths from gunshot wounds were reported 
at his office. It was said — but this is, doubtless, incor- 
rect — that the remains of many of the rioters were se- 
cretly taken into the country and buried there. A 
large number of wounded persons probably died 
during the folloAving week. Governor Seymour in his 
annual messag-e states that the ' number of killed and 
wounded is estimated by the police to be at least one 
thousand.' The police and the regular and local mill- 



108 LIFE OF HORATIO SETMOUE. 

taiy forces suffered but little in comparison with tlift 
mob. With regard to the militia of the 1st Division, 
General Sandford gives the exact figures of their 
losses in a portion of the riots. He says that ' one 
private soldier was killed, and twenty-two men dan- 
gerously, and fifty officers and soldiers slightly, wound- 
ed, at the defeat of the mob in 4 2d Street, the storm- 
ing of the barricade erected by the rioters in 29th 
Street, and in the other conflicts wdiich followed.'' 

" The losses, by the destruction of buildings and 
other property, w^ere originally estimated at $400,000. 
A committee was appointed by the county supervisors, 
to audit claims for damages, for all of which the county 
was responsible, under the law, and for the payment 
of which a large appropriation was made. The aggre- 
gate of the claims far surpassed the highest expecta- 
tions, amounting to over $2,500,000. The committee 
disallowed many, and cut down most of the remainder 
50 per cent. At last accounts over $1,000,000 had 
been paid to claimants, and it was supposed that $500,- 
000 more would be needed for the same purpose." '•' 

The course of Governor Seymour in these riots met 
the approval of all candid and unprejudiced men in the 
State. The better class of Republicans were warm in 
his praise, as will be seen by the extract from the Al- 
ha?}!/ Evening Journal^ (of July, 18 G3,) the leading 
Kepublican journal of the State, already given ; and it 
was not until the heat of party passion had blinded 
them to the dictates of truth and honesty, that any of 
that party commenced, for party purposes, the sys- 

* The Annual Cyclopa?dia, 1863, p. 816. 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. 109 

tematic course of slander they have of late pur- 
sued. 

The charge recently brought by a distinguished 
Republican speaker, (Lt. Gov. Woodford), that the 
riots were the result of Governor Seymour s views and 
teachings, is distinctly refuted by the testimony of 
Mayor Opdyke, a Republican himself, in the proclama- 
tion given above, that they were caused hy the city being 
left defenceless in consequence of " the temporary ab- 
sence of all our organized local militia." Further than 
this, a Republican Legislature, by an almost unani- 
mous vote, thanked Governor Seymour for his conduct 
during the Gettysburg excitement and the riots. Says 
the Veteran historian of " Democracy in the United 
States": 

" When the war commenced, the system of slander 
became enlarged and intensified, and reached not only 
leading Democratic politicians, but the whole party as 
a body and all its members in detail. The Republicans 
erected a standard of comparison, composed exclusively 
of themselves, and required all mankind to conform to 
it, or be consigned to the ranks of ' traitors,' ' rebels,' 
and ' disloyalists,' 'having no rights that Republicans 
were bound to respect.' For the first time a political 
Administration was treated as the Government and the 
people were ignored ; every one who did not approve 
of the acts of the Administration was denounced as dis- 
loyal and an enemy to the Union. Entering the army, 
fighting and losing limbs, or even life, could not re- 
move the stain of disloyalty for questioning the wisdom, 
honesty, and prudence of the President, his advisers, 



110 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

and Congress. The Republicans assumed to sit in 
judgment upon every man they knew or heard of, and 
fixed his status before the world. He must not only 
affree with the Administration and Congress, but he 
must conform to the changes which almost dail}- oc- 
curred in their standard of faith and action. Even the 
insignificancy of a man did not ensure him against a 
military prison. Spies were dodging the heels of every 
man. Sufficient 'black-mail' made the contributor 
loyal, and the want of it usually sent him to prison, as 
disloyal, a rebel, or a traitor. 

" No fidelity or vigilance could supply the place of 
the subserviency demanded. It was assumed that no 
Democrat performed his duty to the country, or gave 
efiicient aid in the war, and that whatever was actually 
done, was by Republicans. If a riot occurred, it was 
charged as the work of the Democrats, and that Dem- 
ocratic ofiicials did not perform their duty in suppressing 
it. It was charged against Governor Seymour that 
he had been dilatory in sending New York troops to 
the field. But the records of the times shoiv that he 
sent troops to Washington he/ore any liejnihlican /State. 
His men ivere the first there. He comijlied with every 
requisition upon Neio York for men more promptly 
than any liepuhlican State in the Union. He icas never 
behind an hour. It was a deep mortification to the 
"War Department that he feretted out its wrong deci- 
sions, and especially in making distribution under dif- 
ferent calls, and requiring at his hands suitable cor- 
rections. When the riots occurred in New York, it 
was charged that, instead of performing his duty in 



THE DRAFT RIOTS. Ill 

sujDpressing it, he secretly encouraged it This impu- 
tation, though denied, and even disproved, was reitera- 
ted until after the election in 1864. 

" Now, when all motive for further perseverance in 
this slander has ceased, it is nearly universally conceded 
that he not only performed his whole duty, but did so 
with untiring zeal, and unwavering perseverance, and 
with the most perfect success. In the Convention at 
Albany, Mr. Opdyke, who was then Mayor of the City 
of New York,* publicly refuted the accusations that 
had been falsely made against Governor Seymour, show- 

* Ma3-or Opdyke in an official letter, dated June 13th, 18G7, makes 
the following statement concerning Gov. Seymour : 

* * As Governor of the State and Commander-in-Chief of its 
military forces, he superseded me in authority over the State militia com- 
manded by General Sanford; but General Wool, commanding tlie Unittd 
States military forces, continued to regard himself as under my imme- 
diate directions, subject, of course, to the approval of Ms own military 
judgment and to the commands of his superiors at Washington. It affords 
me pleasure to add, however, that among all those in authority no diver- 
sity of sentiment manifested itself. All co-operated in earnest efforts to 
restore tlje wonted peace and quiet of the city by the earliest possible 
suppression of the outbreak. 

From a letter at the close of the riot, we quote the following : 
Party interests and prejudices were ignored by them ; their action 
was united and harmonious; the riot was speedily suppressed ; and, con- 
sidering the magnitude of the danger and the slenderness of our means 
of resistance, with extraordinary exemption from loss of life and prop- 
erty. In all my efforts I was ably and steadfastly seconded by tliose 
heads of the City Department who may be regarded as the representatives 
of the Democratic party, Street Commissioner Cornell, Comptroller 
Brennan, City Inspector Boole, Supervisors Tweed, Blunt and Purdy, 
and William H. Armstrong, Esq., of the Mayor's office, were faithful and 
courageous advisers. ******** 

George Opdyke. 



112 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

ing them to be of the highest and most worthy char- 
acter." -^ 

* Democracy in the United States. By Ransom H. Gillelt. pp. 367, 
368 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Draft suspended in Xcw York City — Injustice of the Government to 
K"ew York — Governor Seymour calls the Attention of the President 
to the Inequality in the Apportionment of Conscripts — He asks that 
the Draft be suspended temporarily in the State — Justice of Lis 
Demand — Reply of the President — A ■weak Argument — Refuses to 
suspend the Draft — Correspondence between the Governor and the 
President — Preparations for resuming the Draft in New York City 
and Brooklyn — Letter of General Dix to the Governor — Correspond- 
ence between Governor Seymour and General Dix — Bold and in- 
dependent Course of the Governor — lie maintains the Independence 
of his State, and fastens the Odium and Responsibility of the Draft 
upon the Administration — Proclamation by the Governor— Governor 
Seymour's Course dictated by an exalted Patriotism — Review of his 
Acts — His Course sustained by the Commission appointed by the 
"War Department — He receives the Thanks of the Legislature — 
Letter relating to the Enlistment of Colored Troops. 

The draft, as we have said, was suspended in New 
York city upon the filling of the city's quota by 
volunteers. Nevertheless, it Avas the purpose of the 
Government to enforce it in the remainder of the State. 
General "Wool was relieved of the command of the 
Department, and succeeded by General Dix, who, for 
the j^urpose of overcoming any resistance to the con- 
scription, was furnished by the Secretary of War with 
a force of about twenty thousand men. 

The number of men ordered to be raised by con- 
scription was one fifth of the number enrolled in each 
Congressional District, who belonged to the first class, 
or were between the ages of t-\venty-five and thirty-five, 



114 LIFE or HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

■svitli the unmarried between thirty-five and forty-five. 
It was understood, at the first, that the burden should 
be equally distributed ^between the States according to 
their respective populations subject to military duty, 
vet when the quotas of the various States were made 
out, it was found that New York, Avhich had already 
furnished the largest number of volunteers, was called 
upon to an extent entirely out of proportion to the 
demand made upon the other States, and it was also 
seen that the quota of the State was very unequally 
divided between its various Congressional districts. 

Governor Seymour s attention was promptly called 
to this inequality, and he at once exerted himself to 
see that the people of the State were treated with 
justice and fairness in the matter. On the 3d of Au- 
gust, he addressed a letter to President Lincoln, in 
which he pointed out the inequalities to which we 
have referred, and urged a suspension of the draft un- 
til the result of the recruiting in the various portions 
of the State could be ascertained, and protested against 
the excessive quota required of the urban districts of 
the State. He said: 

"It is just to add that the Administration owes 
this to itself, as these inequalities fall most heavily on 
those districts which have been opposed to its political 
views." 

He called the attention of the President to that 
part of the conscription law which requires that the 
quotas should be so assigned as to equalize the number 
among the districts of the several States, allowing for 
those already furnished, and for the time of ser\dce. 



CONSCRIPTION ACT UNCONSTITUTIONAL. 115 

He claimed that, as New York had ah^eady furnished 
a surplus, she was entitled to credit for them. The 
statement of the Provost-Marshal as to the number of 
troops already furnished by the State, did not agree 
with the records in the Adjutant-Generars office at 
Albany, and the Governor asked that the tv/o records 
might be compared.'^ He asked the President to sus- 
pend the draft until the constitutionality of the law 
could be determined by the courts. The cause of the 
Union would not suffer by this, as recruiting was go- 
ing on actively throughout the Union. Said he : 

" It is believed by at least one-half of the people 
of the loyal States that the Conscription Act, which 
they are called upon to obey because it is on the stat- 
ute-book, is in itself a violation of the supreme consti- 
tutional law. There is a fear and suspicion that, while 
they are threatened with the severest penalties of the 
law, they are to be deprived of its protection. * '•' * 
I do- not dwell upon what I believe would be the con- 
sequence of a violent, harsh policy before the constitu- 
tionality of the Act is tested. You can scan the 
immediate future as well as I. The temper of the 
people to-day you can readily learn." 

He " earnestly urged the Government to interpose 
no obstructions to the earliest practical decision upon 
this point." He added : 

"Our accustomed procedures give to our citizens 
the right to bring all questions affecting personal lib- 

* When it is remembered how often and how plausibly records of all 
kinds were suppressed and altered by the officials of the War Department, 
some idea may be formed of the cause of this difference. 



116 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

erty or compulsory service in a direct and summary 
manner, to the judges and courts of the State or na- 
tion. The decisions which would thus naturally be 
rendered within a brief period, and after full and ample 
discussion, would make such a current of judicial opin- 
ion as would satisfy the public mind that the act is 
either valid or void." 

On the 7th of August, the President replied as 
follows : 

" Executive Mansion, Washington, 
^'August 7th, 1863. 
'•''His Excellency Horatio Seymour^ Gov. of Neiv Yoi^k: 

" Your communication of the 3d instant has been 
received and attentively considered. 

"I cannot consent to suspend the draft in New 
York, as you request, because, among other thhigs, 
time is too important. 

" By the figures you send, which I presume are 
correct, the twelve districts represented fall into two 
classes, of eight and four respectively. The disparity of 
the quotas for the draft, in these two classes, is certainly 
very striking, being the difference between an average 
2,200 in one class, and 4,861 in the other. Assuming 
that the districts are equal one to another, in entire 
population, as required by the plan on which they 
were made, this disparity is such as to require atten- 
tion. 

" Much of it, however, I supj)ose, will be accounted 
for by the fact that so many more persons fit for sol- 
diers are in the city than in the country, who have too 
recently arrived from other parts of the United States, 



PRESIDENT REFUSES TO SUSPEND THE DRAFT. 117 

and from Europe, to be included in the census of 1860, 
or to have voted in 1862. Still, making due allowance 
for this, I am yet unwilling to stand upon it, as an en- 
tirely sufficient explanation for the great disparity. 

'•I shall direct the draft to proceed in all the dis- 
tricts, drawing, however, at first, from each of the four 
districts, to wit : second, fourth, sixth, and eighth, only 
2,200, being the average quota of the other class. 

"After this drawing, these four districts, and also 
the seventeenth and twenty-ninth, shall be carefully re- 
enrolled, and, if you please, agents of yours may wit- 
ness every step of the process. Any deficiency which 
may appear by the new enrolment, will be supplied by 
a special draft for that object, allowing due credit for 
volunteers who may be obtained from these districts, 
respectively, during the interval. And at all pomts, 
so far as consistent wdth practical convenience, due 
credit will be given for volunteers, and your excellency 
shall be notified of the time fixed for commencing the 

o 

draft in each district. 

" I do not object to abide a decision of the United 
States Supreme Court, or of the judges thereof, on the 
constitutionality of the draft law. In fact, I shall be 
willing to facilitate the obtaining of it, but I cannot 
consent to lose the time while it is being obtained. 
We are contending with an enemy Avho, as I under- 
stand, drives every able-bodied man he can reach into 
his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into 
a slaughter-pen. No time is wasted, no argument is 
used. 

" This produces an army which will soon turn upon 



118 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

our now victorious soldiers, already in the field, if they 
shall not be sustained by recruits as they should be. 
It produces an army vrith a rapidity not to be matched 
on our side, if we first waste time to reexperiment 
with the volunteer system, already deemed by Con- 
gress, and palpably, in fact, so far exhausted as to be 
inadequate ; and then more time to obtam a court de- 
cision as to whether a laAv is constitutional which re- 
quires a part of those not now in the service to go to 
the aid of those who are already in it ; and still more 
time to determine with absolute certainty that we get 
those who are to go in the precisely legal proportion 
to those who are not to go. 

" My purpose is to be in my action just and consti- 
tutional, and yet practical, in performing the important 
duty with which I am charged, of maintaining the 
unity and the free principles of our common country. 
"Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln." 

On the 8th, the Governor wrote to the President 
expressing his regret that the draft could not be sus- 
pended until a judicial decision could be had. In this 
letter he forwarded a report of the Judge-Advocate 
General, in support of his assertions that the draft was 
not properly proportioned among the various districts 
of the State. He added : 

"I wish to call your attention to the tables on 
pages 5, G, 7, and 8, which show that in the nine Con- 
gressional districts in Manhattan, Long, and Staten 
Islands, the number of conscripts called for is 33,729, 
while in nineteen other districts the number of con- 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE PRESIDENT. 119 

scripts called for is only 39,626. This draft is to be 
made from the first class ; those between the ages of 
twenty and thirty-iive. It appears by the census of 
1860, that in the first nine Congressional districts there 
were 164,797 males between twenty and thirty-five. 
They are called upon for 33,729 conscripts. In the 
other nineteen districts, with a population of males be- 
tween twenty and thirty-live of 270,786, only 39,626 
are demanded. 

" Again, to show the partisan character of the en- 
rolment, you will find in the 21st page of the Military 
report, that in the first nine Congressional districts, 
the total vote of 1860 was 151,243. The number of 
conscripts now demanded is 33,729. In the nineteen 
districts, the total vote was 457,257 ; yet these districts 
are called upon to furnish only 39,626 drafted men. 
Each of the nine districts gave majorities in favor of 
one political party, and each of the nineteen districts 
gave majorities in favor of the other party." 

On the 11th, the President briefly replied as fol- 
lows : 

" Executive Mansion, Washington, ] 
'' August lltJi, 1S62. ) 
''''His Excellency Horatio Seymour^ Gov. of Nevo York : 

"Yours of the 8th inst., with Judge Advocate-Gen. 
Waterbury's report, was received to-day. Asking you 
to remember that I consider the time as being very 
important, both to the general cause of the country 
and to the soldiers in the field, I beg to remind you that 
I waited at your request from the 1st until the 6th inst., 
to receive your communication dated the 3d. In view 



120 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of its great length and the known time and apparent 
care taken in its preparation, I did not doubt that it 
contained your full case as you desired to present it. 
It contained the figures for twelve districts, omitting 
the other nineteen, as I supposed, because you found 
nothing to complain of as to them. I answered accord- 
ingly. In doing so, I laid down the principle to which 
I propose adhering, which is to proceed with the draft, 
at the same time employing infallible means to avoid 
any great wrong. 

" With the communication received to-day, you 
send figures for twen-ty-eight districts, including the 
same sent before, and still omitting three, for which I 
suppose the enrolments are not yet received. In look- 
ing over the fuller lists of twenty-eight districts, I find 
that the quotas for sixteen of them are above 2,000 and 
below 2,700 ; while of the rest six are above 2,700, and 
six are below 2,000. 

" Applying the principle to these new facts, the 5th 
and 7tli districts must be added to the four in Avhich 
the quotas have already been reduced to 2,200 for the 
first draft, and with these four others must be added 
to those to be reenrolled. The correct case will then 
stand : the quotas of the 2d, 4th, 5th, Gth, 7th, and 8th 
districts, fixed at 2,200 for the first draft. 

" The provost-marshal-general informs me that the 
drawing is already completed in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 
22d, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th districts. In 
the others, except the three outstanding, the drawing 
will be made upon the quotas as now fixed. After the 
first draft, the 2d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 16th, 17th, 



STATEMENT OF DISPROPOETION. 121 

21st, 25th, 29th, and 31st, will be reenrolled, for the 
j)urpose and in the manner stated in my letter of the 
7th inst. The same principle will be applied to the 
now outstanding districts when they shall come in. No 
part of my former letter is repudiated by reason of not 
being restated in this, or for any other cause. 

" Your obedient servant. A. Lincoln." 

The Governor, in insisting upon the injustice of the 
proportion of conscripts demanded of New York, sent 
the following statement to the War Department : 

" The average ratio of enrolment to the male 

population in the Western States, is . .19 per ct. 

In New Jersey 20 " 

In Pennsylvania 18f " 

In the New England States, it is . . . .17 " 
In the State of New York, it is . . . .22 " 
Massachusetts, with ten ConoTessmen and a 
population of 1,231,006, has to furnish, 
under the recent call for 300,000 men . 15,126 
The first nine Congressional districts of the 
State of New York, with a population 
of 1,218,949, are called upon for . . . 25,166 
Excess in the nme Congressional districts in 
New York over ten Congressional dis- 
tricts in Massachusetts 10,040 

The quota of Vermont and New Hampshire, 
with a united population of 64 1 , 1 7 1 , and 
six representatives in Congress, and four 
senators, is 7,099 



122 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

The quota of two Congressional districts in 
New York, the 4th and 6th, with a pop- 
ulation of 283,229, is 7,628/ 

Meanwhile, as it was probable that the draft, which 
had been suspended in New York and Brooklyn, might 
have to be resumed in those cities. General Dix, then 
in command of the Federal troops in the Department 
of the East, sent the following communication to Gov- 
ernor Seymour : 

" Headquarters, Department of the East, "I 
" New York City, July 30th, 1863. j 
" Sir : As the draft under the Act of Cono-ress of 
March 3d, 1863, for enrollino- and callino; out the 
national forces, will probably be resumed in this city 
at an early day, I am desirous of knowing whether the 
military power of the State may be relied on to enforce 
the execution of the law, in case of forcible resistance 
to it. I am very anxious that there should be perfect 
harmony of action between the Federal Government 
and that of the State of New York ; and if under your 
authority to see the laws faithfully executed, I can feel 
assured that the Act referred to will be enforced, I need 
not ask the War Department to put at my disposal for 
the purpose, troops in the service of the United States. 
I am the more unwilling to make such a request as 
they could not be withdrawn in any considerable num- 
ber from the field without prolonging the war and 
giving aid and encouragement to the enemies of the 
Union, at the very moment when our successes promise, 



CORRESPONDENCE WITH GENERAL DIX. 123 

with a vigorous effort, the speedy suppression of the 
rebellion. 

"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your 
obedient servant. John A. Dix, Maj.-Geii." 

To this letter, the Governor, who had written to 
the President, asking a suspension of the draft, and 
who was awaiting his answer, replied as follows : 

"Albany, Monday^ Aug. 3c/, 1863. 
" To Maj.-GeneralJohn A. Dix^ Co^nmanding Easteim 
Depaftment : 
" Sir : I received your letter on Saturday. I have 
this day sent to the President of the United States a 
communication in relation to the draft in this State. I 
believe his answer will relieve you and me from the 
painful questions growing out of an armed enforce- 
ment of the Conscription law in this patriotic State, 
which has contributed so largely and freely to the sup- 
port of the national cause during the existing war. 
When I receive the President's answer, I will write to 
you again upon the subject of your letter. 
" Truly yours, &c., 

"Horatio Seymour." 

On the 8th of August General Dix again addressed 
the Governor. He said : 

"It is my duty now, as commanding officer of the 
troops in the service of the United States in the depart- 
ment, if called on by the enrolling officers, to aid them 
in resisting forcible opposition to the execution of the 
law : and it was from an earnest desire to avoid the 



124 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

necessity of employing for the purpose any of my forces, 
which have been placed here to garrison the forts and 
protect the public property, that I wished to see the 
draft enforced by the military power of the State in 
case of armed and organized resistance to it. But 
holding such resistance to the paramount law of Con- 
gress to be disorganizing and revolutionary, leading, 
unless effectually suppressed, to the overthrow of the 
Government itself, to the success of the insurgents of 
the seceded States, and to universal anarchy, I de- 
signed, if your cooperation could not be relied on, to 
ask. the General Government for a force which should 
be adequate to ensure the execution of the law, and to 
meet any emergency growing out of it." 

Governor Seymour, failing to procure, at the hands 
of the General Government, a suspension of the draft, 
replied as follows, on the 15th of August: 

" As you state in your letter that it is your duty to 
enforce the act of Congress, and as you apprehend its 
provisions may excite popular resistance, it is proposed 
you should know the position which will be held by the 
State authorities. Of course, under no circumstances 
can they perform duties expressly confided to others ; 
nor can they undertake to relieve others from their 
proper responsibilities. But there can be no violations 
of good order or riotous proceedings, no disturbances 
of the public peace, which are not infractions of the 
laws of the State, and those laws will be enforced under 
all circumstances. I shall take care that all the exec- 
utive officers of this State perform their duties vigor- 
ously and thoroughl}^, and, if need be, the military 
power will be called into requisition. 



PEOCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOK. 125 

'• As you are an officer of the General Government 
and not of the State, it does not become me to make 
suggestions to you with regard to yom' action under 
a law of Congress. You will, of course, be governed 
by your instructions, and by your own views of duty." 

On the 18th, General Dix wrote to the Governor 
again. He said : 

" Not having received an answer from you, I ap- 
plied to the Secretary of War on the 14th mstant, for 
a force adequate to the object. Tlie call was promptly 
resj^onded to, and I shall be ready to meet all opposi- 
tion to the draft." 

To this letter the Governor replied on the 20th. 
He said he had received no notice when the draft would 
take place, the same course having been pursued to- 
wards him when the first order for the draft was issued, 
although he expected such notice, and hoped some 
interval would be allowed between the notice and the 
draft, adding: 

"You will see that no time was allowed for ffettins; 
credits for volunteers, for making suggestions or prepa- 
rations. I do not know that the fault rests with Colonel 
Fry, but it is proper for me to state these facts." 

On the same day, in view of the resumption of the 
draft, he issued the following proclamation : 

" Executive Chamber, Alba^^y, ) 
''August ISth, 1863. j 
" I have received information that the draft is about 
to be made in the cities of New York and Brooklyn, 
and I understand that there is danger of disorderly 



126 LIFE OF HOKATIO SEYMOUE. 

and riotous attacks upon those v»"ho are engaged in 
executing the law of Congress. 

" I cannot believe that any considerable number of 
citizens are disposed to renew the shameful and sad 
scenes of the past month, in which the lives of so many, 
as well of the innocent as of the guilty, were destroyed. 
Our courts are now consigning to severe punishment 
many of those who were then guilty of acts destructive 
of the lives and property of their fellow-citizens. These 
events should teach all that real or imaginary wrongs 
cannot be corrected by unlawful violence. The liber- 
ties of our country and the rights of our citizens can 
only be preserved by a just regard for legal obligations, 
and an acquiescence in the decision of judicial tribunals. 

"While I believe it would have been a wise and 
humane policy to have procured a judicial decision, 
with regard to the constitutionality of the Conscription 
Act, at an earlier day and by a summary process, yet 
the failure to do this in no degree justifies any violent 
opposition to the act of Congress. Until it is set aside 
by the decision of judicial tribunals, it must be obeyed 
like any other act of the State or National Legislature. 

" The following rule of duty in this respect was laid 
down in the farewell address of Andrew Jackson. 
This view has always been accepted by the friends of 
our Union and the upholders of our Constitution : 

(Unconstitutional or oppressive laws may, no doubt, 
be passed by Congress, either from erroneous views or 
the want of due consideration. If they are in reach of 
judicial authority, the remedy is easy and peaceful; 
and, if from the character of the law, it is an abuse of 



PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR. 127 

power not within the control of the judiciary, then free 
discussion and calm appeals to reason, and to the jus- 
tice of the people, will not fail to redress the wrong. 
But until the law shall be declared void by the courts 
or repealed by Congress, no individual or combination 
of individuals can be justified in resisting its execution.) 

" The antagonistic doctrine that men may rightfully 
resist laws opposed to their own ideas of right or duty 
has not only led to great disorders and violence, but is 
one of the chief causes of the destructive civil war which 
has wasted the blood and treasure of our people. Dis- 
regard for the sacredness of the Constitution, for the 
majesty of the law, and for the decisions of the judi- 
ciary, is, at this time, the greatest danger which threat- 
ens American liberty. 

"This spirit of disloyalty must be put down. It 
is inconsistent with social order and social security, 
destructive to the safety of persons and property, and 
subversive of the liberty of the citizen and the freedom 
of the nation. Those who fear that there are clesijjns 
in any quarter to overthrow the rights of the citizen, 
or to obstruct the accustomed administration of our 
laws, or to usurp any power in violation of constitu- 
tional restraints, should bear in mind that all acts of 
violence, all public disorders, pave the way for these 
very usurpations, and that they will be regarded with 
satisfaction by those who, for any cause, may wish to 
destroy either the power or rights of our National or 
State Governments. 

"The Constitution and Statutes of the State and 
nation contain ample remedies for all -svTongs which 



128 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

may be committed either by rulers or citizens, and 
those who wish to preserve their rights, or to punish 
offenders, whether in public or in private life, should 
themselves carefully perform their duty, abstain from 
all illegal acts, generously support the Government, 
and then calmly and resolutely claim their rights. 

" I again repeat the warning which I gave to you 
during the riotous proceedings of the past month, that 
' the only opposition to the conscription which can be 
allowed is an appeal to the courts. The right of every 
citizen to make such an appeal will be maintained, and 
the decision of the courts must be respected and obeyed 
by rulers and people alike. No other course is con- 
sistent with the maintenance of the laws, the peace and 
order of the city, and the safety of its inhabitants. 
Kiotous proceedings must and shall be put down. The 
laws of the State of New York must be enforced, its 
peace and order maintained, and the lives and prop- 
erty of all citizens protected, at any and every haz- 
ard. The rights of every citizen will be properly 
guarded and defended by the chief magistrate of the 
State.' 

" I hereby admonish all judicial and executive offi- 
cers, whose duty it is to enforce the law and preserve 
public order, that they take vigorous and effective 
measures to put down any riotous or unlawful assem- 
blages ; and if they find their power insufficient for that 
purpose, to call upon the military in the manner pointed 
out by the Statutes of the State. If these measures 
should prove msufficient, I shall then exert the full 
power of the State, in order that the public order may 



REVIEW OF THE GOVERNOR'S ACTS. 129 

be preserved, and the persons and properties of" the 

citizens be fully protected. 

"Horatio Seymour.'' 

The action of Governor Seymour respecting the 
draft, has, of course, been denounced by the Republi- 
can press, who spare no man whose crime is a differ- 
ence of opinion from them, and many good, fair-mind- 
ed men, owing to a wilful misrepresentation of facts, 
have been led to believe that he used his power and 
influence to defeat the efforts of the General Govern- 
ment to fill up the ranks of the army. Let us look 
at the case for a moment. Our review of it is based 
solely upon the facts given herein. 

Governor Seymour, in common with thousands of 
other true men, believed the draft to be a violation of 
the rights guaranteed the State of New York by the 
Federal Constitution. He asked its suspension at the 
hands of the Government until the Courts could de- 
cide upon its constitutionality, and, as the recruiting 
was o:oin2: on brisklv all over the State, he was war- 
ranted in believing that such suspension would not 
weaken the cause or armies of the Union. The Gov- 
ernment refused his request, and he submitted to its 
decision. He pointed out the inequalities of the sys- 
tem which the Federal authorities proposed to inaugu- 
rate, and asked that the injustice thus done to the 
people of New York should be remedied. His plain 
duty was to protect, as. far as lay in his power, the 
rights of the people of his State, and he would have 
been false to his oath of office had he not done so. It 

9 



130 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

was not fair that the chief burden of the war should 
be made to fall upon New York, which State had al- 
ready voluntarily taken the lead in filling up the army, 
for the war was not fought for the benefit of that State 
alone. All the members of the Union were interested 
in it, and it was but right that each one should furnish 
its proportionately equal share of men. Governor 
Seymour asked no more than this. He also pointed 
out the inequality of the demands made upon the va- 
rious portions of the State and asked to have them 
equalized. He protested that it was not fiiir to make 
the heaviest demands on the Anti-Administration dis- 
tricts, and the fact that the War Department hoped to 
simplify in this way the opposition to the Administra- 
tion, does not affect the justice of the Governors plea. 
When General Dix asked liim to enforce the draft 
by using the military power of the State for that pur- 
pose, he very properly declined to do so. The Federal 
Government had completely ignored both the State of 
New York and its officials in the matter of the draft. 
The measure itself was a violation of the Constitu- 
tional rights of the State of New York, an outrage 
upon her, against -which her constituted authorities 
and a majority of her 23eople had protested, and it 
would have been simply infamous in Mr. Seymour to 
have complied with General Dix's request. Further 
than this, the Conscription bill was a Federal la^v. It 
was the duty of Federal officers alone to execute it ; 
they alone were responsible for the n^anner in which it 
was carried out, and the officials of the State of New 
York could not legally take their places, or incur their 



REVIEW OF THE G0VEE1!^0R's ACTS. 131 

responsibility. The Governor offered no opposition 
to the law, but manfully insisted upon its execution 
by the proper persons. So far, indeed, from medita- 
ting or countenancing resistance, his ^proclamation al- 
ready given, sternly denounced any such course. This 
proclamation is generally passed over by his traducers, 
but it is certain that no more "loyal,'' to use a much 
■abused term, state 23aper ever issued from any Repub- 
lican Governor at any period before, during, or since 
the war. 

Nor were the Governor's objections to the provis- 
ions of the draft unsupported by facts. The state- 
ment prepared by the Adjutant-General of the State 
showed that the draft as proposed, would throw upon 
the eastern portion of the State, comprising less than 
one third of the Congressional districts, more than 
one half of the burdens of the conscription. In sup- 
port of his assertion that the heaviest demand was 
made upon the Anti-Lincoln districts, the Governor 
submitted the following statement, also prepared by 
the Adjutknt-General of the State : 

" The nine Anti-Lincoln districts are required to 
furnish nearly as many conscripts as the nineteen Lin- 
coln districts, although the latter polled more than 
three times as many votes ; as follows : 



132 



LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUE. 



1S60. 



Lincoln Disteicts. 



Anti-Lincoln Disteicts. 



District. 


Total Vote. 


Cons, 
required. 


District. 


Total Vote. 


Cons, 
required. 


12 


22,GG4 
19,698 
25,540 
17,167 
20,874 
27,389 
29,188 
28.522 
21,519 
23,995 
24,070 
28,497 
22,317 
25,566 
27,673 
24,204 
22,541 
23,315 
21,518 


2,013 
2,006 
2,370 
1,493 
1,818 
2,310 
2,387 
2,448 
1,746 
2,068 
2,088 
2,202 
1,936 
2,152 
2,419 
2,051 
1,767 
2.539 
1,753 


1 


19,194 
17.169 
19.297 
17,253 
15,731 
17,056 
14,832 
19,440 
li;27l 


2 212 


13 . . 


2 


4 146 


15 


3 


2,697 
5 881 


16 


4 


17 


5 


3,390 


18 


6 


4,538 


19 


7 


3,452 


20 


8 


4,892 
2,521 


21 


9 


22 

23 


Totals 




151,243 


33,729 


24 

25 

26 

2.7 

28 

29 

30 

31 


Totals 


457,257 


39,626 





The War Department referred Governor Seymour s 
objections to a commission, consisting of William F. 
Allen, of New York, John Love, of Indiana, and 
Chauncey Smith, of Massachusetts, for the purpose 
of examining them and determining upon some fair 
mode of correcting the inequalities complained of. 
These gentlemen made a formal report to the Govern- 
ment, sustaining the objections of Governor Seymour 
as to an excess of enrolment^ and an alloicance of 
13,000 men ims at once made hy the War Department. 
At the next session, the Legislature, consisting of 103 
Administration or Mepiiblican memhers and 57 Dem- 



ENLISTMENT OF COLORED TROOPS. 133 

ocrats, passed a vote of thanks to the Governor for his 
successful conduct of the ct^airf'' 

Later in the year, inquiries were made of Govern- 
or Seymour relative to the enlistment of colored troops, 
to which he replied as follows : 

"State of New York, Executive Department, \ 

" Albany, Nov. lUh. j 

" Sir : In answer to your inquiries about enlist- 
ment of blacks and the oro-anization of rej^iments and 
companies, I have to say : 

'" 1st. That, under the State laws, the bounty is 
paid to all without distinction, who are mustered into 
the service of the United States, and for whom credits 
are given to New York under the President's call for 
troops. 

" 2d. As to new organizations, I have no power to 
authorize any, either blacks or vrhites, which will be 
entitled to the bounty given by the General Govern- 
ment. The object at Washington is to fill up the ranks 
of the regiments in the field. If any new organiza- 
tions for either white or black troops are made, they 
must be authorized by the War Department to entitle 

*The following is tlie resolution passed by the Legislature on the IGtli 
of April, 1864: 

" ]2esoUed^ That the thanks of this House be, and ai-e hereby ten- 
dered to his Excellency, Governor Seymour, for calling tlie attention of the 
General Government at Washington to the errors in the apportionment 
of the quota of this State, under the enrolment act of March 3, 1863, 
and for his prompt and efficient efforts in procuring a correction of the 
same. 

'■'• Eesohed^ That the Clerk of this House transmit to the Governor a 
copy of this report and resolution." 



134 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

those who join them to the benefit of the money paid 
to volunteers. Yours, &c. 

" Horatio Seymour. 
" To James Rodgers, 

"No. 421 Broadway, N. Y. City." 



CHAPTER VII. 

Meeting of the Democratic Convention of tlie State — Pledges its Support 
to the Government in all lawful Measures fur bringing the War to 
a successful Close — 'Mass Meeting at Albany to consider the un- 
lawful Arrest of Mr. Vallandigham — Letter of the Governor — Pro- 
ceedings of the Meeting — Correspondence of the Committee with the 
President — Meetings throughout the State^Oourse of Governor 
Seymour indorsed by all — Democratic Meeting at Syracuse — Elo- 
quent Speech of Governor Seymour — A Plain Statement of Facts — 
Meeting of the Legislature — The Governor's Message — Review of the 
Draft, and his Action therein— Statement of his action during the 
Riots — Eloquent Appeal for the Union — Etforts of the Governor 
in behalf of the Credit of the State — His Success. 

The State Democratic Convention met at Albany 
on the 10th of September, 1863. This body pledged 
the support of the Democrats of New York to the 
Government in " all legitimate means to suppress the 
Rebellion and restore the Union." It declared that 
the Government was pledged to conduct the war solely 
for the objects avowed by the resolutions of Congress 
in July, 1861, that illegal and arbitrary arrests were 
violations of the Constitution, a usurpation and a 
crime, that the Government should endeavor to con- 
ciliate the people of the South ; that the claim of the 
authority of the General Government to destroy the 
rights and obliterate the boimdaries of the States is as 
false and dangerous as the doctrine of secession ; that 
the Constitution and laws do not cease to be bindinsr 

o 

in time of war ; that the soldiers and sailors deserve 



136 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the gratitude of the nation ; that the results of con- 
scription ought to admonish the Government " to rely 
upon the voluntary action of a patriotic people ;" and 
that mob violence is a crime against a people and a 
Kepublican Government. The administration of Gov- 
ernor Seymour was declared worthy of the liighest ap- 
proval of all true friends of the Union. 

On the 16th of May, 1863, a public meeting was 
held at Albany, to consider the unlawful arrest of 
Mr. Vallandigham. Governor Sej'mour was not able 
to be present, but sent the following letter to the 
Committee of Invitation : 



! 



" State of New York, Executive Department, 
"Albany, July 16th, 1863. 
" To Peter Cagger, Solomon F. Higgins, Erastus Corn- 
ing, Jr., Committee: 

" I cannot attend the meeting at the capitol this 
evening, but I wish to state my opinion in regard to 
the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham. 

"It is an act which has brought dishonor upon our 
country ; it is full of danger to our persons and to our 
homes ; it bears upon its front a conscious violation of 
law and of justice. Acting upon the evidence of de- 
tailed informers, shrinking from the light of day in the 
darkness of night, armed men violated the home of an 
American citizen, and furtively bore him away to a 
military trial, conducted without those safeguards 
known to the proceedings of our judicial tribunals. 

" The transaction involved a series of offences against 
our most sacred rights. It interfered with the freedom 



LETTER OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 137 

of speech ; it violated our rights to be secure in our 
homes against unreasonable searches and seizures ; it 
pronounced sentence without a trial, save one which 
was a niockerv, which insulted as well as wrono-ed. 
The perpetrators now seek to" impose punishment, not 
for an offence ao-ainst law, but for a disreo-ard for 
an invalid order, put forth in an utter disregard of 
principles of civil liberty. If this proceeding is ap- 
proved by the Government, and sanctioned by the 
people, it is not merely a step toward revolution, it 
is revolution ; it will not only lead to military despotism, 
it establishes military despotism. In this aspect it must 
be accepted, or in this aspect it must be rejected. 

"If it is upheld, our liberties are overthrowji. 
The safety of our persons, the security of our prop- 
erty, will hereafter depend upon the arbitrary wills 
of such military rulers as may be placed over us, 
while our constitutional guarantees will be broken 
down. Even now the Governors and the courts of 
some of the gTeat Western States have sunk into 
insignificance before the despotic powers claimed and 
exercised by military men who have been sent into 
their borders. It is a fearful thing to increase the 
danger which now overhangs us, by treating the law, 
the judiciary, and the authorities of States with con- 
tempt. The people of this country now wait Avith 
the deepest anxiety the decisions of the Administra- 
tion upon these acts. Having given it a generous 
support in the conduct of the war, we now pause to 
see what kind of Government it is for whicli we are 
asked to pour out our blood and our treasures. 



138 LIFE OF HORxVTIO SEYMOUR. 

" The action of the Admhiistration will determine 
in the minds of more than half of the people of 
the loyal States, whether this war is waged to put 
down rebellion at the South, or to destroy free in- 
stitutions at the North. We look for its decision with 
the most solemn solicitude.* 

" Horatio Seymour/'' 

* The results of this meeting are so important that we append them 

here: 

Albany, Marj 1W\, 1868. 

To Tiis Excellency the President of the United States : 

The undersigned, officers of a public meeting held in the city of Al- 
bany the 16th day of May instant, herewith transmit to your Excellency 
a copy of the resolutions adopted at the said meeting, and respectfully 
request your earnest consideration of them. They deem it proper on 
their personal responsibility to state that the meeting was one of the 
most respectable as to numbers and character, and one of the most earnest 
in support of the Union ever held in this city. 
Yours, with great regard, 

EiJASTus CoEXiXG, President. 

Vice- Presidents — Eli Perry, Peter Gansevoort, Peter Mouteath, Sam- 
uel "W. Gibbs, John Kiblock, II. W. McClellan, Lemuel W. Piodgers, 
TVilliam Seymour, Jeremiah 0^bo^n, William S. Paddock, J. B. Sanders, 
Edward Mulcahy, D. V. K Eadcliflf. 

Secretaries — "William A. Eice, Edward Newcomb, E. MV. Peckham, jr., 
M. A. IN clan, John E. Nessle, and others. 

The resolutions were as follows : 

Peaohed, That the Democrats of New York point to their uniform 
course of action during the two years of civil war through which we have 
passed, to the alacrity whicii they have evinced in filling the ranks of the 
army, to their contributions and sacrifices, as the evidence of their p.n- 
triotism and devotion to the cause of our imperilled country. Never in 
the history of civil wars has a Government been sustained with such 
ample resources of means and men, as the people have voluntarily placed 
in the hands of this Administration. 

Pesoh-cd, That as Democrats, we are determined to maintain this 
patriotic attitude, and, despite of adverse and disheartening circumstances, 
to devote all our energies to sustain the cause of the Union, to secure 



MASS MEETING IN NEW YORK. 139 

The Conservative citizens of New York city, at 

a mass meeting in Union Square, adopted tlie fol- 

lowino; resolutions relative to the arrest of Mr. 



peace through victory, and to bring about the restoration of all the States 
ander the safeguards of the Constitution. 

Resolved, That while we will not consent to be misrepresented npon 
'these points, we are determined not to be misunderstood in regard to 
others not less essential. We demand that the Administration shall be 
true to the Constitution, shall recognize and maintain the rights of the 
States and the liberties of the citizen, shall everywhere outside of the 
lines of necessary military occupation and the scenes of insurrection, exert 
all its powers to maintain the supremacy of the civil over military law. 

Hesohed, That in view of these principles we denounce tiie recent 
assumption of a military commander to seize and try a citizen of Ohio, 
Clement L. Vallandigham, for no other reason than words addressed to 
a public meeting, in criticism of the course of the Administration, and in 
condenmation of the military orders of that general. 

Resolved, That this assumption of power by a military tribunal, if suc- 
cessfully asserted, not only abrogates the right of the people to assemble 
and discuss the affairs of Government, the liberty of speech and of the 
press, the right of trial by jury, the law of evidence, and the privilege of 
habeas corpus, but it strikes a fatal blow at the supremacy of law, and 
the authority of the State and Federal Constitutions. 

Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States — the supreme 
law of the land-^has defined the crime of treason against the United 
States to consist " only in levying war against them, or adhering to their 
enemies, giving them aid and comfort ; " and has provided that " no 
person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two wit- 
nesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." And it 
further provides that "no person shall be held to answer for a capital 
or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of 
a grand jury; except in cases arising in the land and naval forces, or in 
t!ie militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger ; " 
and further, that " in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy 
the right of a speedy and public trial, by an imjjartial jury of the State 
and district wherein the crime was committed." 

Resolved, That these safeguards of the rights of the citizen against the 
pretensions of arbitrary power, were intended more especially for his 
protection in times of civil commotion. They were secured substantially 



140 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

Vallandigham and the letter of Governor Sey 
mour : 

" Whei-eas, within a State where the Courts of kiw 



to the Eugli^h people, after years of protracted civil war, and were 
adopted into our own Constitution at the close of the Eevolution. They 
have stood the test of seventy-six years of trial under our republican 
pysteiii, under circumstances which show that while they constitute the 
foundation of all free government, they are the elements of the enduring 
stability of the republic. 

Hesolced, That in adopting the language of Daniel "Webster, we de- 
clare, " it is the ancient and undoubted prerogative of this people to can- 
vass public measures and the merits of public men. It is a ' homebred 
right,' a fireside privilege. It has been enjoyed in every house, cottage, 
and cabin in the nation. It is as undoubted as the right of breathing the 
air or walking on the earth. Belonging to private life as a right, it be- 
longs to public life as a duty, and it is the last duty which those whose 
representatives we are shall find us to abandon. Aiming at all times to 
be courteous and temperate in its use, except when the right itself is 
questioned, we shall place ourselves on the extreme boundary of our own 
right, and bid defiance to any arm that would move us from our ground. 
This high constitutional privilege we shall defend and exercise in all 
places; in time of peace, in time of war, and at all times. Living, we 
shall assert it ; and should we leave no other inheritance to our children, 
by the blessing of God we will leave them the inheritance of free prin- 
ciples and the example of a manly, independent, and constitutional de- 
fence of them." 

licsohed, That in the election of Gov. Seymour, the people of this 
State, by an emphatic miijority, declared their condemnation of the sys- 
tem of arbitrary arrests, and their determination to stand by the Consti- 
tution. That the revival of this lawless system can have but one result, 
to divide and distract the North, and destroy its confidence in the pur- 
poses of the Administration. That we deprecate it as an element of con- 
fusion at home, of weakness to our armies in the field, and as calculated 
to lower the estimate of American character and ningnify the apparent 
peril of our cause abroad. And that, regarding the blow struck at a 
citizen of Ohio as aimed at the rights of every citizen of the North, we 
denounce it as against the spirit of our laws and Constitution, and most 
earnestly call upon the President of the United States to reverse the ac- 
tion of the military tribunal which has passed a " cruel and unusual pun- 



LETTER OF THE PRESIDENT. 141 

are open and tlieir process unimpeded, soldiers under 
the command of officers of the United States army 
have broken into the residence and forcibly abducted 

ishment" upon the party arrested, prohibited in terms by the Constitu- 
tion, and to restore him to the liberty of which he has been deprived. 

Hesohedy That the president, vice-presidents, and secretary of this 
meeting be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to his Excel- 
lency the President of the United States, with the assurance of this 
meeting of their hearty and earnest desire to support the Government 
in every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the existing re- 
bellion. 



Executive Mansion, "Washington, ) 
June 12th, 1863.' S 
lion. Erastus Corning, and others : 

Gentlemen: Your letter of May 19th, enclosing the resolutions of a 
public meeting held in Albany, N. Y., on the ICth of the same month, 
was received several days ago. 

The resolutions, as I understand them, are resolvable into two prop- 
ositions — first, the expression of a purpose to sustain the cause of 
the Union, to secure peace through victory, and to support the Adminis- 
tration in every constitutional and lawful measure to suppress the rebel- 
lion ; and, secondly, a declaration of censure upon the Administration 
for supposed unconstitutional action, such as the making of military ar- 
rests. And from the two propositions a third is deduced, which is, that 
the gentlemen composing the meeting are resolved on doing their part to 
maintain our common Government and country, despite the folly or 
wickedness, as they may conceive, of any Administration. This position 
is eminently patriotic, and as such I thank the meeting, and congratulate 
the nation for it. My own purpose is tlie same, so that the meeting and 
myself have a common object, and can have no diiFerence, except in the 
choice of means or measures for effecting that object. 

And here I ought to close this paper, and would close it, if there were 
DO apprehension that more injurious consequences tban any merely per- 
sonal to myself might follow the censures systematically cast upon me 
for doing what, in my view of duty, I could not forbear. The resolutions 
promise to support me in every constitutional and lawful measure to sup- 
press the rebellion ; and I have not knowingly employed, nor shall know- 
ingly employ, any other. 



142 LITE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

from his home, the Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham ; 
and whereas, a body of m^n, styled a military commis* 
sion, have arraigned before them and tried the said 

But the meeting, by their resolutions, assert and argue that certain 
military arrests, and proceedings following them, for which I am ulti- 
mately responsible, are unconstitutional. I think they are not. The reso- 
lutions quote from the Constitution the definition of treason, and also the 
limiting safeguards and guarantees therein provided for the citizen on 
trial for treason, and on his being held to answer for capital or otherwise 
infamous crimes, and in criminal prosecutions, his right to a speedy and 
public trial by an impartial jury. They proceed to resolve " that these 
safeguards of tlie rights of the citizen against the pretensions of arbitrary 
power were intended more especially for his protection in times of civil 
commotion." And, apparently to demonstrate the proposition, the reso- 
lutions proceed, "they were secured substantially to the English people 
after years of protracted civil war, and were adopted into our Constitu- 
tion at the close of the Revolution." Would not the demonstration have 
been better if it could have been truly said that these safeguards had 
been adopted and applied during the civil wars and during our Revolu- 
tion, instead of after the one and at the close of the other ? I, too, am 
devotedly for them after civil war and before civil vrar, and at all times, 
" except when, in cases of rebellion and invasion, the public safety may 
require " their suspension. The resolutions proceed to tell us that these 
safeguards " have stood the test of seventy-six years of trial, under our 
republican system, under circumstances which show that while they con- 
stitute the foundation of all free government, they are the elements of 
the enduring stability of the republic." No one denies that they have so 
stood the test up to the beginning of tlie present rebellion, if we except 
a certain occurrence at New Orleans ; nor does any one question that they 
will stand the same test much longer after the rebellion closes. But 
these provisions of the Constitution have no application to the case we 
have iu Iiand, because the arrests complained of were not made for 
treason — that is, not for the treason defined in the Constitution, and upon 
the conviction of which the punishment is death ; nor yet were they 
made to hold persons to answer for any capital or otherwise intamous 
crimes; nor were the proceedings following, in any constitutional or legal 
sense, " criminal prosecutions." The arrests were made on totally dif- 
ferent grounds, and the proceedings following accorded with the grounds 
of the arrests. 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. 143 

Hon. C. L. Vallandighain, a civilian and eminent pub- 
lic man, for words spoken in the discussion of public 
questions before an assemblage of liis fellow-citizens ; 

Let us consider the real case with wLich -vre arej dealing, and applj 
to it the parts of the Constitution plainly roade for such cases. 

Prior to my installation here it had been inculcated that any State 
had a lawful right to secede from the national Union, and that it would 
be expedient to exercise the right whenever the devotees of the doctrine 
should tail to elect a President to their own liking. I was elected con- 
trary to their liking; and, accordingly, so far as it was legally possible, 
they had taken seven States out of the Union, had seized many of the 
United States forts, and had fired upon the United States flag, all before 
I was inaugurated, and, of course, before I had done any official net what- 
ever. The rebellion thus begun soon ran into the present civil war ; 
and, in certain respects, it began on very unequal terms between the 
parties. The insurgents had been preparing for it for more than thirty 
years, while the Government had taken no steps to resist them. The 
former had carefully considered all the means which could be turned to 
their account. It undoubtedly was a well-pondered reliance with them 
that in their own unrestricted eflforts to destroy Union, Constitution, and 
law, all together, the Government would, in a great degree, be restrained 
by the 8;ime Constitution and law from arresting their progress. Their 
sympathizers pei'vaded all departments of the Government and nearly all 
communities of the people. From this material, under cover of "liberty 
of speech," "liberty of the press," and "habeas corpus," they hoped to 
keep on foot amongst us a most efficient corps of spies, informers, sup- 
pliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand ways. They 
knew that in times such as they were inaugurating, by the Constitution 
itself, the habeas corpus might be suspended ; but they also knew they 
had friends who would make a question as to who was to suspend it; 
meanwhile their spies and others might remain at large to help on their 
cause. Or if, as has happened, the executive should suspend the writ, 
without ruinous waste of time, instances of arresting innocent persons 
might occur, as are always likely to occur in such cases ; and then a 
clamor could be raised in regard to this, which might be, at least, of 
some service to the insurgent cause. It needed no very keen perception 
to discover this part of the enemy's programme, so soon as by open hos- 
tilities their machinery was fairly put in motion. Yet thoroughly imbued 
with a reverence for the guaranteed rights of individuals, I was slow to 



144 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

and whereas, tlie said military commission has sen- 
tenced him to a punishment as yet unknown, but which 
is to be announced in some military order promulga- 
ted hereafter, therefore 

adopt tlie strong measures wliicli by degrees I have been forced to regard 
as being -within the exceptions of the Constitution, and as indispensable 
to the public safety. Nothing is better known to history than that courts 
of justice are utterly incompetent to such cases. Civil courts are organ- 
ized chiefly for trials of individuals, or, at most, a few individuals acting 
in concert, and this in quiet times, and on charges of crimes well defiued 
in the law. Even in times of peace bands of horse thieves and robbers 
frequently grow too numerous and powerful for the ordinary courts of 
justice. But what comparison in numbers have such bands ever borne 
to the insurgent sympathizers, even in many of the loyal States ? Again, 
a jury too frequently has at least one member more ready to hang the 
■panel than to hang the traitor. And yet, again, he who dissuades one 
man from volunteering, or induces one soldier to desert, weakens tbe 
Union cause as much as he who kills a Union soldier in batile. Yet 
this disuasion or inducement may be so conducted as to be no defined 
crijae of which any civil court would take cognizance. 

Ours is a case of rebellion — so called by the resolution before me — in 
fact, a clear, flagrant, and gigantic case of rebellion ; and the provision 
of the Constitution that " the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall 
not be suspended unless when in case of rebellion or invasion the public 
safely may require it," is the provision which specially applies to our 
present case. This provision plainly attests the understanding of those 
who made the Constitution that ordinary courts of justice are inadequate 
to "cases of rebellion" — attests their purpose that, in such cases, men 
may be held in custody whom the courts, acting on ordinary rules, would 
discharge. Habeas corpus does not discharge men who are proved to be 
guilty of defined crime ; and its suspension is allowed by the Constitution 
on purpose that men may be arrested and held who cannot be proved to 
be guilty of defined crime, " when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the 
public safety may require it." This is precisely our present ease— a case 
of rebellion, wherein the public safety does require the suspension. In- 
deed, arrests by process of court.^ and arrests in cases of rebellion do not 
proceed altogether upon the same basis. The former is directed at the 
small percentage of ordinary and continuous perpetration of crime, while 
the latter is directed at sudden and extensive uprisings against the Gov- 



MILITAEY ARRESTS DENOUNCED. 145 

" Resolved^ That we, the citizens of the city of New 
York, here assembled, denounce the arrest of Hon. 
Clement L. Vallandigham, and his trial and sentence 

ernment, wliicL, at most, "will succeed or fail in no great length of time. 
In the latter case arrests are made not so much for what hns been done, 
as for what probably would be done. The latter is more for the preven- 
tive and less for the vindictive than the former. In such cases the pur- 
poses of men are much more easily understood than in cases of ordinary 
crime. The man who stands by and says nothing when the peril of his 
Government is discussed cannot be misunderstood. If not hindered, he 
is sure to help the enemy ; much more if he talks ambiguously — talks for 
his country with " buts " and "ifs" and " ands." Of how little value 
the constitutional provisions I have quoted will be rendered, if arrests 
shall never be made until defined crimes shall have been committed, may 
be illustrated by a few notable examples. Gen. John 0. Breckinridge, 
Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Jose[)h E, Johnston, Gen. John B. Magruder, 
Gen. William B. Preston, Gen. Simon B. Buckner, and Com. Franklin 
Buchanan, now occupying the very highest places in the rebel war ser- 
vice, were all within the power of the Government since the rebellion 
began, and were nearly as well known to be traitors then as now. Un- 
questionably, if we had seized and held them, the insurgent cause would 
be much weaker. But no one of them had committed any crime defined 
in the law. Every one of them, if arrested, would have been discharged 
on habeas corpus, were the writ allowed to operate. In view of these 
and similar cases, I think the time not unlikely to come when I shall be 
blamed for having made too few arrests rather than too many. 

By the third resolution the meeting indicate their opinion that mili- 
tary arrests may be constitutional in localities where rebellion actually 
exists, but that such arrests are unconstitutional in localities where rebel- 
lion or insurrection does not actually exist. They insist that such arrests 
shall not be made " outside of the lines of necessary occupation, and the 
scenes of insurrection." Inasmuch, however, as the Constitution itself 
makes no such distinction, I am unable to believe that there is any such 
constitutional distinction. I concede that the class of arrests complained 
of can be constitutional only when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the 
public safety may require them ; and I insist that in such ca?e3 they are 
constitutional wherever the public safety does require them ; as well in 
places to which they may prevent the rebellion extending, as in those 
where it may be already prevailing ; as well where they may restrain 
10 



146 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR 

by a military commission, as a startling outrage upon 
the hitherto sacred rights of American citizenship. 
" Mesolved^ That exigencies of civil war require the 

miscliieTOus interference with the raising and supplying of armies to sup- 
press the rebellion, as -where the rebellion may actually be ; as well 
■where they may restrain the enticing men out of the army, as where 
they would prevent mutiny in the army ; equally constitutional at all 
places where they will conduce to the public safety, as against the dangers 
of rebellion or invasion. Take the particular case mentioned by the 
meeting. It is asserted, in substance, that Mr. Vallandigham was, by a 
military commander, seized and tried " for no other reason than words 
addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the course of the Adminis- 
tration, and in condemnation of the military orders of the general." 
Now, if there be no mistake about this ; if this assertion is the truth, and 
the whole truth ; if there was no other reason for the arrest, then I con- 
cede that the arrest was wrong. But the arrest, as I understand, was 
made for a very different reason. Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility 
to the war on the part of the Union ; and his arrest was made because 
he was laboring, with some effect, to prevent the raising of troops ; to 
encourage desertion from the array ; and to leave the rebellion without 
an adequate military force to suppress it. He was not arrested because 
he was damaging the political prospects of the Administration, or the 
personal interests of the commanding general, but because he was damag- 
ing the army, upon the existence and vigor of which the life of the na- 
tion depends. lie was warring upon the military, and this gave the mil- 
itary constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands upon him. If Mr. Vallan- 
digham was not damaging the military power of the country, then his 
arrest was made on mistake of fact, which I would be glad to correct on 
reasonable satisfactory evidence. I understand the meeting whose res- 
olutions I am considering, to he in favor of suppressing the rebellion by 
military force — by armies. Long experience has shown that armies can- 
not be maintained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe pen- 
alty of death. The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanc- 
tion, this punishment. Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who 
deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him 
to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a 
father, a brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working 
upon his feelings until he is persuaded to write the soldier-boy that he is 
fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked Administration of a contemptible 



MILITAKY ARRESTS DENOUNCED. 147 

fullest and freest discussion of public questions by tlie 
American people, to the end that their temporary 
public servants may not forget that they are the crea- 

Gorernment, too weak: to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I 
think that in such a case, to silence the agitator and to save the boy, is 
not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy. 

If I be wrong on this question of constitutional power, my error lies 
in believing that certain proceedings are constitutional when, in cases of 
rebellion or invasion, the public safety requires them, which would not 
be constitutional when, in absence of rebellion or invasion, the public 
safety does not require them; in other words, that the Constitution is 
not, in its application, in all respects the same, in cases of rebellion or in- 
vasion involving the public safety, as it is in times of profound peace and 
public security. The Constitution itself makes the distinction ; and I can 
no more be persuaded that the Government can constitutionally take no 
strong measures in time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the 
same could not be lawfully taken in time of peace, than I can be per- 
suaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick man, because 
it can be shown not to be good food for a well one. Kor am 1 able to 
appreciate the danger apprehended by the meeting that the American 
people will, by means of military arrests during the rebellion, lose the 
right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of 
evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus, throughout the indefinite 
peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any more than I am able 
to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for emetics 
during temporary illness, as to persist in feeding upon them during the 
remainder of his healthful life. 

In giving the resolutions that earnest coni-ideration which you request 
of rae, I cannot overlook the fact tliat the meeting speak as " Democrats." 
Xor can I, with full respect for their known intelligence, and the fairly 
presumed deliberation with which they prepared their resolutions, be 
permitted to suppose that this occurred by accident, or in any way other 
than tliat they preferred to designate themselves "Democrats '' rather 
than "American citizens." In this time of national peril, I would have 
preferred to meet yon upon a level one step higher than any party plat- 
form ; because I am sure that, from such more elevated position, we could 
do better battle for the country we all love than we possibly can from 
those lower ones where, from the force of habit, the prejudices of the 
past, and selfish hopes of the future, we are sure to expend much of our 



148 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

tares of the public will, and must respect the obliga- 
tions and duties imposed upon them by the Constitu- 
tion of their country, which is the authentic, solemn 

ingenuity and strength in finding fault witli and aiming blows at each 
otber. But, since you have denied me this, I will yet be thankful, for 
the country's sake, that not all Democrats have done so. lie on whose 
discretionary judgment Mr. Vallandigham was arre.-ted and tried 13 a 
Democrat, having no old party affinity with me; and the judge who re- 
jected the constitutional view expressed in these resolutions, by refusing 
to discharge Mr. Vallandigham on habeas corpus, is a Democrat of better 
days than these, having received his judicial mantle at the hands of Pres- 
ident Jackson. And still more, of all those Democrats who are nobly 
exposing their lives and shedding their blood on the battle-field, I have 
learned that many approve the course taken with Mr. Vallandigham, 
while I have not heard of a single one condemning it. I can assert that 
there are none such. And the name of President Jackson recalls an" in- 
cident of pertinent history. After the battle of New Orleans, and while 
the fact that the treaty of peace had been concluded was well known in 
the city, but before official knowledge of it had arrived. Gen. Jackson 
still maintained martial or military law. Now that it could be said the 
war was over, the clamor against martial law, which had existed from 
the first, grew more furious. Among other things, a Mr. Louaillier pub- 
lished a denunciatory newspaper article. Gen. Jackson arrested him. 
A lawyer, by the name of Morel, procured the United States Judge (Hall) 
to order a writ of habeas corpus to relieve Mr. Louaillier. Gen. Jnckson 
arrested both the lawyer and the Judge. A Mr. Hollander ventured to 
say of some part of the matter that " it was a dirty trick." Gen. Jackson 
arrested liim. "When the officer undertook to serve the writ of habeas 
corpus, Gen. Jackson took it from him, and sent him away with a copy. 
Holding the Judge in custody a few days, the General sent him beyond 
the limits of his encampment, and set him at liberty, with an order to re- 
main till the ratification of peace should be regularly announced, or until 
the British should have left the Southern coast. A day or two more 
elapsed, the ratification of the treaty of peace was regularly announced, 
and the Judge and others were fully liberated. A few days more, and 
the Judge called Gen. Jackson into court and fined him a thousand dol- 
lars for having arrested him and the others named. The General paid 
the fine, .ind there tlie matter rested for nearly thirty years, when Con- 
gress refunded principal and interest. The late Senator Douglas, then in 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED. 149 

expression of that will ; and that Avhenever, upon the 
orders of military commanders, and from fear of 
their spies and informers, American citizens not in the 

tlie Ilouse of Representatives, took a leading part in the debates, in whicli 
tlie constitutional question was much discussed. I am not prepared to 
say whom the journals would show to have voted for the measure. 

It may be remarked : First, that we had the same Constitution then 
as now ; secondly, that we then liad a case of invasion, and now we have 
a case of rebellion ; and, thirdly, that the permanent right of the people 
to public discussion, the liberty of speech and of the press, the trial by 
jury, the law of evidence, and the habeas corpus suffered no detriment 
"whatever by that conduct of Gen. Jackson, or its subsequent approval by 
the American Congress, 

And yet, let me say, that, in my own discretion, I do not know 
whether I would have ordered the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham. AVhile I 
cannot shift the responsibility from myself, I hold that, as a general rule, 
the commander in the field is the better judge of the necessity in any 
particular case. Of course I must practise a general directory and re- 
visory power in the matter. 

One of the resolutions expresses the opinion of the meeting that ar- 
bitrary arrests will have the effect to divide and distract those who should 
be united in suppressing the rebellion, and I am specially called on to 
discharge Mr. Vallandigham, I regard this act as at least a fair appeal 
to me on the expediency of exercising a constitutional power which I 
think exists. In response to such appeal, I have to say it gave me pain 
when I learned that Mr. Vallandigham had been arrested — that is, I was 
pained that there should have seemed to be a necessity for arresting him 
— and that it will afford me great pleasure to discharge him so soon as I 
can, by any means, believe the public safety will not suffer by it. I 
further say that, as the war progresses, it appears to me that opinion and 
action, which were in great confusion at first, take shape and full into 
more regular channels, so that the necessity for strong dealing witli them 
gradually decreases. I have every reason to desire that it should cease 
altogether, and far from the least is my regard for the opinions and 
wishes of those who, like the meeting at Albany, declare their purpose 
to sustain the Government in every constitutional and lawful measure tc 
suppress the rebellion. Still I must continue to do so much as may seem 
to be required by the public safety. 

A, Lincoln. 



150 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOrR. 

military service shall be denied the right to approve or 
disapprove measures of public policy, to denounce or 
applaud the Commander-in-Chief, and to advocate 

Albany, June dOtJi, 1863. 
To his Excellency the President of the United States: 

SiE : The undersigneJ, officers of the public meeting held in this city 
on the IGth day of May last, to whom your communication of the 12th 
of this montli, commenting on the resolutions adopted at that meeting, 
was addressed, have the honor to send to your Excellency a reply to that 
communication by the committee who reported the resolutions. The 
great importance to the people of this country of the questions discussed, 
must be our apology, if any be needed, for saying, that we fully concur 
in this reply, and believe it to be in entire harmony with the views and 
sentiments of the meeting referred to. 

"We are, with great respect, very truly yours, 

Erastus Coexixg, President. 

The following extracts from the reply of the committee contain the 
points presented in that document : 

The fact has already passed into history that the sncred rights and 
immunities which were designed to be protected by these constitutional 
guarantees, have not been preserved to the people during your Adminis- 
tration. In violation of the first of them, the freedom of tie press has 
been denied. In repeated instances newspapers have been suppressed in 
the loyal States, because they criticized, as constitutioiuilly they might, 
those fatal errors of policy which have characterized the conduct of 
public affairs since your advent to power. In violation of the second of 
them, hundreds, and we believe, thousands of men, have been seized and 
immured in prisons and bastiles, not only without warrant upon proba- 
ble cause, but without any warrant, and for no other cause than a con- 
stitutional exercise of freedom of speech. In violation of all these guar- 
antees, a distinguished citizen of a peaceful and loyal State has been torn 
from his home at midnight by a band of soldiers, acting under the orders 
of one of your generals, tried before a military commis^ion, without 
judge or jury, convicted and sentenced without even the suggestion of 
any offence known to the Constitution or laws of this country. For all 
these acts you avow yourself ultimately responsible. In the special case 
of Mr. Vallandigham, the injustice commenced by your subordinate was 
consummated by a sentence of exile from his home, pronounced by you 



RESOLUTIONS AbOPTED. 151 

peace or war, as tlieir judgments may dictate, tliey 
have ceased to be freemen and have already become 
slaves. 



That great wrong, more than any other which preceded it, asserts the 
principles of a supreme despotism. 

These repeated and continued invasions of constitutional liberty and 
private right, have occasioned profound anxiety in the public mind. The 
apprehension and alarm which they are calculated to produce, have been 
greatly enhanced by your attempt to justify them, because in that at- 
tempt you assume to yourself a rightful authority possessed by no con- 
stitutional monarch on earth. "We accept the declaration that you prefer 
to exercise this authority with a moderation not hitherto exhibited. 
But, believing, as we do, that your forbearance is not the tenure by 
which liberty is enjoyed in this country, we propose to challenge the 
grounds on which your claim of supreme power is based, "^'hile yield- 
ing to you as a constitutional magistrate the deference to which you are 
entitled, we cannot accord to you the despotic power you claim, however 
indulgent and gracious you may promise to be in wielding it. 

We have carefully considered the grounds on which your pretensions 
to more than regal authority are claimed to rest; and if we do not mis- 
interpret the misty and cloudy forms of expression in which those pre- 
tensions are set forth, your meaning is, that while the rights of the citi- 
zens are protected by the Constitution in time of peace, they are sus- 
pended or lost in time of war, when invasion or rebellion exists. You 
do not, like many others in whose minds reason and the love of regulated 
liberty seem to be overthrown by the excitements of the hour, attempt 
to base this conclusion upon a supposed military necessity existing outside 
of, and transcending the Constitution, a military necessity behind which 
the Constitution itself disappears in a total eclipse. We do not find this 
gigantic and monstrous heresy put forth in your plea for absolute power, 
but we do find another equally subversive of liberty and law, and quite 
as certainly tending to the establishment of despotism. Ton claim to 
have found, not outside, but within the Constitution, a principle or germ 
of arbitrary power, which in time of war expands at once into an abso- 
lute sovereignty, wielded by one man ; so that liberty perishes, or is de- 
pendent on his will, his discretion, or his caprice. This extraordinary 
doctrine you claim to derive wholly from tliat clause of the Constitution 
which in ca«e of invasion or rebellion, permits the writ of habeas corpus 
to be suspended. Upon this ground your whole argument is based. 



152 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

" Resolved^ That we reverently cherish that great 
body of constitutions, laws, precedents, and traditions 
which constitute us a free people, and that we hold 
those who designedly and persistently violate them 
as j^ublic enemies. 

" Besolved^ That we are devotedly attached to the 
Union of these States, and can see nothing but calam- 
ity and weakness in its disruption, and shall continue 
to advocate whatever policy we believe will result in 
the restoration of that Union. 

" Mesolved^ That at a time when our fellow-citizens 
are falling by thousands upon the battle-field, and hu- 
man carnage has become familiar, we implore the 
Federal authorities not to adopt the fatal error that a 
system of imprisonment and terrorism will subjugate 
the minds and stifle the voices of the American peo- 
ple. 

" Resolved^ That we call upon the Grovernor of the 
State of New York and all others in authority, as they 
value organized society and stable institutions, to save 
us from the humiliation and peril of the arrest and 
trial before Military Commissions of citizens whose 
only crime shall be the exercise of a right without 
which life is intolerable and republican citizenship a 
false name and a false pretence. 

" Resolved., That the refusal of the Judge of the 
district within which the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham is 
mcarcerated to grant a writ of haheas corpus^ is itself 
a nullification of the Constitution and an infamous 
outrage upon the clearly defined rights of the citizen. 

" Resolved^ That we fully and heartily endorse the 



PUBLIC MEETING AT TROY. 153 

language of our noble and patriotic Governor, address- 
ed to the meeting assembled at Albany on Saturday,* 
tlie IGtli inst, that the arbitrary arrest and imprison- 
ment of Mr. Vallandigham is "an act which has 
brought dishonor on our country, which is full of dan- 
ger to our persons and homes, and which bears upon 
its front a conscious violation of law and justice."" 

" Resolved^ That while fully and heartily endors- 
ing the manly and outspoken sentiments of the Gov- 
ernor of New York, we shall do all in our power to 
sustain him in his determination to preserve inviolate 
the sovereignty of our State and the rights of its 
people against Federal encroachments and usurpations." 

At a meeting held in Troy — the largest ever seen 
in that city, and made all the more important by the 
fact that it was officered and attended to a considerable 
extent by gentlemen who had never before acted with 
the Democratic party — the following resolution, en- 
dorsing the Governor, was adopted : 

^''lie-solved., That we fully and heartily endorse the 
language of our noble and truly patriotic Governor, 
addressed to the meeting assembled at Albany, on Sat- 
urday, the 16th inst., that the arbitrary arrest and im- 
prisonment of Mr. Vallandigham is ' an act which has 
brought dishonor upon our country, which is full of 
danger to our persons and homes, ^and which bears 
upon its front a conscious violation of law and justice.'" 

The New York resolutions given above were unani- 
mously readopted. 

Similar meetings were held, and resolutions of a 
like character adopted, all over the State. 



154 LIFE OF IIOEATIO SEYMOUE. 

The election for State officers and members of the 
Leoislature was held in November. On the 30th of 
October, a large and enthusiastic Democratic meeting 
was held at Syracuse, at which several gentlemen acted 
as Vice-Presidents who had voted for Mr. Lincoln for 
President, and for Gen. Wadsworth for Governor, the 
year before. Governor Seymour addressed the meet- 
ins: at considerable leno;th. We make the foUowinoj 
extracts from his speech : 

" One year ago we were a people united in pur- 
pose — to-day we are distracted and paralyzed. Why ? 
To-day the South, which was then ready to full to 
pieces, is united, and apparently as strong as ever. 
Why ? That party most endangers the public welfare 
which not only refuses to use every influence that can 
be brought to bear, but opposes obstacles in the way 
of a successful completion of the contest in which we 
are eno;ao-ed. That man who, not content with restor- 
ing the Union and upholding the Constitution, adds 
further objects more difficult of attainment, hinders 
the success of the war. I appeal to you, men of On- 
ondaga, men of Central New York, if they are not 
making success more difficult, more unattainable, if in 
any event they are not postponing the end, until you 
are brought nearer and nearer those calamities which 
lie straight in our pathway — national bankruptcy and 
national ruin. They say we must fight until slavery is 
extinguished ; they say we must fight until the States 
shall assume new relationships to the Federal Govern- 
ment — until it becomes revolutionary in its aspects and 
influences. We are to unsettle what eighty years of 



SPEECH AT SYCRAUSE. 155 

experience had settled ; we are to upturn the founda- 
tions of our Constitution. At this very moment, when 
the fate of the nation and of individuals trembles in 
the balance, these madmen ask us to plunge into a 
bottomless pit of controversy upon indefinite purposes. 
Does not every man know that we must have a vmited 
North to triumph ? Can we get a united North upon 
a theory that proposes to centralize the power of the 
General Government upon propositions that you shall 
not have the great right and liberty of protecting your 
own person ? that the Constitution can be set aside at 
the will of one man, because, forsooth, he judges it to 
be a military necessity ? [' No, no.'] I never heard 
yet that Abraham Lincoln was a military necessity. 
[Great laughter.] If military necessities are to gov- 
ern, let us at least be consistent, and ask that military 
men shall judge what these necessities are — ^men who 
can marshal armies in the field and fidit o-reat battles. 
The very proposition disfranchises you. If you assent 
to it, you men of Central New York, give up your 
Constitutional right to your OAvn judgment. 

" Now I propose to inquire. What has taken place 
since I stood here one }'ear ago ? What were the cir- 
cumstances of our country then? At that moment 
the j^eople of the United States had given, voluntarily, 
under the calls of our Government, six hundred thou- 
sand men to swell the ranks of your armies. Before 
that time our political opponents, through their jour- 
nals and speakers, had said that the Administration 
had failed in the conduct of the war. Therefore it was 
that at the last November election, when you did me 



156 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the honor to place me in the Gubernatorial chair, you 
decided that they had failed in meeting the just expec- 
tations of the American people. You gave them 600,- 
000 more, 600,000 living men — somebody's sons, some- 
body's brothers, somebody's husbands. They went 
from the homes of our land ; they constituted the 
wealth and power of the nation. Where are they'? 
What has been done ? Is our country saved ? Is the 
war terminated? To-day, when we ought to rejoice at 
the full completion of our heart's desu'e, we are met — 
not by assurances that peace is restored to our land, 
not by the fact that rebellion is put down ; no, my 
friends, we are met by another call for 600,000 men. 
This moment everywhere our armies are on the de- 
fensive. The question to-day is — not 'What are we 
doing ? ' but ' What are the enemy doing ? ' The ques- 
tion is — not 'Where do our Generals attack?' but 
' Where are we threatened ? ' Look at the Potomac. 
Look at the Cumberland and Tennessee. Notwith- 
standing the vast contributions of blood, and men, and 
treasure, to-day we are called upon to furnish 600,000 
more, including the number embraced under the Con- 
scription act, and you, the people of New York, to-day 
are called upon to furnish 108,000 men before the 5th 
of Jaimary next. Now, there are some things about 
which there is no difference of opinion among candid 
men of all parties. 

'* It is agreed that there is a limit in the expendi- 
ture of money when the nation must be whelmed in 
national bankruptc}', and that there is a limit in the 
prosecution of the war when the nation will go to ruin. 



SPEECH AT SYRACUSE. 157 

Every day"'s expenditure of lite and money brings us 
nearer to these calamities. We agree that the v/ar 
must be brought to the speediest possible honorable 
conclusion. Now, which of the two parties asking 
your support is the one most likely to reach this result 
before we reach national bankruptcy, ruin, and dis- 
grace? Let the past go. We will leave it to the 
judgment of the future to say who has been right and 
who has been wrong. Let us now confront the duties 
of the hour boldly and patriotically. We are to de- 
cide by our votes what shall be the future policy of the 
Government, for I tell you the voice of New York will 
be potential in the end. If the people of this State 
shall decide in favor of the radical policy, which is to 
prolong the war for indefinite issues, we are lost for- 
ever. On the contrary, if the people of this State 
decide in favor of a policy which can be reached and 
which will bring the war to a successful conclusion, 
there is yet a glorious future for our land. Where do 
the two parties differ? The Kepublicans say, 'We 
want to put forth all the material powers of our land 
to bring the war to a close.' We say so, too. We are 
upon the brink of a cataract, without time to inquire 
into the p/ast ; we must put fortJi every material power 
to secure success to our cause. But we say more than 
that ; we say that we will add to the power of force 
the influences of wise statesmanship, of conciliation, 
of Christian charity, of patriotic purpose. [Cheers.] 

" The draft has been the first great attempt to ex- 
ercise this power, and it has miserably failed. Instead 
of strengthening the Government, it has immeasurably 



158 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

■weakened it. I do not fear for the States, but for the 
Federal Government. The great State of New York 
can maintain her rights when the little men -who insult 
her are passed away and forgotten. [Great cheering.] 
You remember how gloriously the State responded to 
the calls for volunteers. Our rulers, when they saw 
the mighty armies they had marshalled, thought it had 
been done by their own power, instead of by the spon- 
taneous patriotism of the people. They said we will 
pass around the hat no more when we want men or 
money, but we wiU pass a law and send out force, so 
that when we want men we will take them out of the 
houses of the nation by compulsion. New York sent 
out of itself one hundred and twenty thousand volun- 
teers. Now look at the result of the draft for sixty- 
eight thousand men. They gave you credit under that 
draft for twenty-one thousand men. How is this 
twenty-one thousand made up ? Well, you are valued 
as being worth about three hundred dollars apiece, and 
of these twenty-one thousand men which have been 
rendered, twelve or thirteen thousand are three hun- 
dred dollar bills — not men of muscles and sinews ready 
to do service ; and that act has not sent out from this 
State eight thousand men. I do not believe it has 
more than six thousand, and more than half of these 
are substitutes, which is another name for volunteers. 
So much for the centralization policy. 

" You are to decide the most momentous questions 
ever submitted to a people ; questions that come home 
to each man of you in all the relationships of life. 
The mighty debt that is being rolled up is an encum- 



MEETING OF THE LEGISLATURE. 159 

brance upon your property, and now equals one-fourth 
of the value of the whole property of the country. 
So far as it is necessary to spend for proper purposes, 
let it be poured forth ; but if it is to gratify the theo- 
ries of fanatics and bigoted men, we should express 
our disapproval of those theories that are mortgagmg 
our lands. We are willing to sustain them in all con- 
stitutional purposes ; we dedicate ourselves and all we 
have to the preservation of our country ; but when 
they ask of us sacrifices for the purpose of trampling 
down the Constitution and destroying the great princi- 
ples of liberty, then we must at least have the poor 
privilege of raising our voices in terms of expostula- 
tion against a policy so fatal and ruinous. We love 
that flag [pointing to the stars and stripes] with the 
whole love of our life ; and every star that glitters on 
its blue field is sacred. And let me conclude with the 
sentiment of a citizen of another State, declarino- that 
we will preserve the Constitution. We will preserve 
the Union ; we will preserve our flag, with every star 
that glitters upon it, and we will see to it that there is 
a State for every star." [Continued cheering.] 

The meeting then adjourned, and Gov. Seymour, 
arrivino; ao-ain at the hotel, shook hands and con- 
versed with citizens and friends until the hour for 
dinner. 

The Legislature met at Albany on the 5th of 
January, 1864. The Governor's Message was sent in 
on the same day. After dealing with matters relat- 
ing purely to the State, such as the common schools, 
the prisons, banks, finances, trade, canal, immigra- 



160 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

tion, and the Constitutional amendment, the Gover- 
nor proceeded to speak of the draft. He said : 

" Congi'ess, at its last session, passed an act for 
drafting citizens into the army. It wrought a change 
in the public feeling with regard to military service, 
and all, without respect to political views, tried to 
evade its operations. It has proved injurious to the 
civil, industrial, and military interests of the country. 

"I called the attention of the President of the 
United States to the inequality in the enrolment. 
The wrong was partially corrected by reducing the 
numbers called for in those districts where they were 
excessive, to the average number in the other districts 
of the State. New York is required to furnish more 
than other States m proportion to its population." 

The Governor then submitted a statement which we 
have already given in another chapter, showing the 
truth of his assertion. He then related the action of 
the War Department, and gave the result of the volun- 
teerino; which had been 2;oin": on in the State during 
the past year, with great success. He declared the draft 
a failure. Said he : 

"It not only fails to fill our armies, but it pro- 
duces discontent in the service ; it is opposed to the 
genius of our political system ; it alienates our people 
from the Government ; it is injurious to the indus- 
trial pursuits of the country. 

" The difficulty in getting recruits is owing in part 
to the exhausting demands which have been made 
for that purpose. But it is also owing to other reasons; 
and among them attempted coercion is foremost. Con- 



THE governor's MESSAGE. 161 

gress attempted to keep up the number of men in 
the field without res-ard to State or local Govern- 

CD 

ment, and it set aside those numerous minor local or- 
ganizations, whose united contributions of men have 
made up our vast armies. By eiForts to make itself 
independent of popular and local influences, the Gen- 
eral Government impaired its power to get recruits." 
He argued that as long as the people and Gov- 
enment are financially prosperous, recruits ought to 
be raised by bounties, and not by coercion, and dem- 
onstrated that the system inaugurated by the Fede- 
ral Government was extravagant, unpopular, and cal- 
culated to do great injury to the cause and to the 
morale of the army. He said that the army should 
not be allowed to run down until it was inefficient, 
and then be refilled by a violent and revolting ef- 
fort. Kecruiting should go on all the time, with such 
reasonable bounties as would draw volunteers. The 
militia of the States should be kept up to an efficient 
standard at all times, and would thus constitute a 
reserve force, ready for any emergency. Had this 
been done in the past, Ohio and Pennsylvania would 
not have been invaded, nor would New York be then 
insulted by threatening attacks upon her border cities 
and towns. The sympathy which ought to exist be- 
tween the army and people, ought to be fostered by 
the Government. The armies should feel that they are 
upliolding a just, paternal Government, which respects 
their personal rights, the happiness of their families, 
the sanctity of their homes. Such a feeling is not 
likely to exist in an army of conscripts, dragged from 
11 



162 LIFE OF HOKaTIO SEYMOUR. 

their homes and forced into the service against their 
will. 

The Governor related the incidents connected with 
the call for aid from Pennsylvania, and the sending of 
the militia to her assistance, and referred to the draft 
riots as follows : 

" While the militia were thus absent from the city, 
and its forts and harbor unprotected, on Saturday, the 
11th day of July, the draft, under the act of the last 
Congress, was commenced in one of the wards of the 
city. / ivas not advised of the stej)^ andlhelieve the 
Mayor of the city tvas eqiialhj ignorant of the proceed- 
ing. A despatch was sent to me by the Mayor of New 
York, informing me of a popular outbreak, on Mon- 
day evening, the 13th day of Jul}', and on the follow- 
ing morning T reached the city and found it agitated 
with wild excitement and riotous violence. The militia 
were ordered to return immediately from Pennsyl- 
vania. * * * * * 

"For the purpose of legalizing the most extreme 
exertion of force to put down violent resistance to law, 
I declared the city in a state of insurrection. It was 
divided into districts, which were placed under the 
control of persons of influence or military experience, 
who were directed to organize the citizens. Three 
thousand stand of arms were issued to these and other 
organizations. I endeavored by these arrangements to 
enable the police and the military to act against the 
masses of the rioters, and to relieve them from the fa- 
tigue of marching to distant points to check minor dis- 
orders. 



THE governor's MESSAGE. 163 

"To prevent the spread of violence, I obtained 
from the Collector of the port the service of an armed 
vessel, to traverse the rivers and bays in the vicinity 
of New York, and I also authorized the Police Com- 
missioners to charter another steamer, which could be 
used to carry policemen and soldiers to any point on 
the shores or islands where disturbances were threat-- 
ened. ***** 

* * * " I do not underrate the value of the 
services rendered by the military and naval officers of 
the General Government who were stationed in the 
city, or those of Gen. Sandford, for the public are un- 
der great oblio-ations to them for their couraae and 
prudent counsels. But they had at their command 
only a handful of troops, who alone were entirely un- 
equal to the duty of defending the vast amount of pub- 
lic property that was endangered. The rioters were 
subdued by the exertions of the city officials, civil and 
military, the people, the police, the firemen, and a 
small body of only twelve hundred men, composed 
equally of the State and National forces." 

The Governor then stated that, in consequence of 
an appeal from General Wool, sho^ving that there was 
not force enough in his command to properly garrison 
the forts about the city, he ordered the militia from 
the interior of the State to repair at once to New York 
to man the fortifications, but that Gen. Wool subse- 
quently requested him to rescind the order. 

The remainder of the message was devoted to na- 
tional affairs. The lawless and unprincipled conduct 
of the Administration was severely condemned, and 



164 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the outrages practised upon citizens of the loyal States 
denounced as revolutionary. The issues of the war 
were discussed temperately and practically. The lan- 
guage of the message was cahn and dignified, and the 
whole paper breathed forth an earnest devotion to the 
Constitution and the Union. The Governor declared 
that the war ought to be waged only for the restoration 
of the Union, which Union ought to be preserved as a 
free Government, not as a military despotism. The 
message closed as follows : 

" Wise statesmanship can now bring this war to a 
close, upon the terms solemnly avowed at the outset of 
the contest. Good faith to the public creditors ; to all 
classes of citizens of our country; to the world, de- 
mands that this be done. 

"The triumph won by the soldiers in the field 
should be followed up and secured by the peace-making 
policy of the statesmen in the Cabinet. In no other 
way can we save our Union. 

" The fearful struo-o-le -which has tauo;ht the North 
and South the courage, tlie endurance, and the re- 
sources of our people, have made a basis of mutual 
respect upon which a generous and magnanimous pol- 
icy can build lasting relationships of union, intercourse, 
and fraternal regard. If our course is to be shaped 
by narrow and vindictive passions, by venal purposes, 
or by partisan objects, then a patriotic people have 
poured out their blood and treasure in vain, and the 
future is full of disaster and ruin. 

" We should seek not the disorganization but the 
pacification of that section of our country devastated 



THE GOVERT^Or's MESSAGE. 165 

by civil war. In this hour of triumph appeals should 
be made to States, which are identified with the growth 
and greatness of our country, and with some of which 
are associated the patriotic memories of our revolu- 
tionary struggle. Every generous mind revolts at the 
thouo-ht of destrovin2; all those memories that clino- 
about the better days of the Republic ; that are con- 
nected with the sacrifices of the men who have made 
our history glorious by their sendees in the Cabinet, in 
the forum and in the field. 

" The victories which have given our Government 
its present commanding position were won by men who 
rallied around and fouo-ht beneath the folds of a flao* 

o o 

whose stars represent each State in our Union. If we 
strike out of existence a single State, we make that 
flag a falsehood. When we extinguish the name of 
any one of the original thirteen States, we dishonor 
the historic stripes of our national banner. Let the 
treasonable task of defacing our flag be left to those 
who war upon our Government, and Avho would de- 
stroy the unity of our country. 

" Faith to our armies and to our citizens demands 
that we keep sacred the solemn pledge made to our 
people and to the civilized world when we engaged in 
this bloody war, ' that it was not waged in any spirit of 
oppression, or for any purpose of conquest or subjuga- 
tion, or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with 
the ricrhts of established institutions- in those States, 
but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Con- 
stitution and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, 
equality and rights of the several States unimpaired ; 



166 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the 
war ought to cease.' " 

Early in the year, the Legislature adopted a reso- 
lution declaring that no distinction should be made 
between the foreign and domestic creditor in the pay- 
ment of interest on the State debt. This action of that 
body drew forth the followmg message from the Gov- 
ernor : 

" Executive Department, "j 

''Albany, April 22, 1864. j 
" To the Legislature : 

"My attention has been called to a concurrent 
resolution which has passed both branches of the Leg- 
islature, in the following words : 

" ' Wliereas, All the stocks issued by this State were 
made payable and negotiable in this State; there- 
fore, 

" ' Resolved, That no distinction should be made 
between the foreign and domestic holders of such bonds 
as to the currency in which the principal and interest 
thereon should be paid.'' 

" To the principle laid down in this resolution, in 
terms, there can be no objection offered. All the 
creditors of the State, whether they be of our own 
people or foreign, should be alike paid ; paid promptly 
and in full all that was promised them. 

"The Legislature, last year, adopted a concurrent 
resolution on this subject in tho, following words : 

" ' Iiesolved, That the interest accruing on so much 
of the State debt on the first day of April as was, on 
the 1st day of March, 1863, held by persons residing 



FINANCIAL AFFAIRS. 167 

out of the United States, and is still held by them, be 
paid in gold or its equivalent.' 

" And an appropriation was made for the purchase 
of coin to an extent sufficient to enable the Comptroller 
to pay in gold the interest on the stocks of New York 
held by persons residing abroad ; and only to that ex- 
tent. Although the resolution of last year did not in 
terms forbid the payment of the interest due to our 
creditors residing in this country, in coin, yet the ab- 
sence of any appropriation for the purpose obliged the 
Comptroller to forego such payment. 

"In practice, a distinction was thus made between 
the non-resident creditor and the resident creditor. 
We kept faith with the stranger who had trusted us ; 
we broke faith only with those of our own household. 

" The effect of the resolution of this year, in the 
absence of any appropriation, will be that no part of 
the interest will be paid, to wit, in coin or its equiva- 
lent. 

" When we sought the markets of the world with 
our securities, we pledged ourselves to redeem them m 
the currency of the world. The partial neglect of 
plighted faith last year is now to be followed by an 
open refusal to pay any of our promises according to 
their plain sense. The disgrace of last year was 
limited ; it was kept within ourselves ; now our shame 
and dishonor are to be borne in the face of the world. 

" I look upon this matter as of so much moment to 
the welfare and to the character of New York and of 
its people that I feel constrained to ask you to give the 
subject a reconsideration ; and to urge you to pass a 



168 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

concurrent resolution that shall enable the Comptroller 
to pay all the interest which may fall due before the 
next session of the Legislature, in coin. In this way 
your resolution of this year can be carried into effect 
consistently with the good credit of the State, and ' no 
distinction' will 'be made between foreign and domestic 
holders ' of the bonds. If you do not do this, let me 
urge you to provide, at least, for the interest that 
is due residents of other countries being paid in 
coin. 

" The refusal to pay in coin to our own citizens 
may justify itself to some minds, although not to mine, 
as a measure of quasi taxation ; special, discriminating, 
and unfair, but excused by our present extraordinary 
condition. In dealing with our creditors in other 
countries no such considerations can come in. We 
have over them no legitimate power of taxation ; these 
creditors of ours have no voice nor part in our politi- 
cal action ; we have no claim upon them that they 
should take a share in the misfortunes that befall us 
in our career. They are not of our household, nor 
bound to take part of our domestic calamities upon 
themselves. The burdens and the misfortunes of this 
war belong to us ; it is ungenerous to shift any por- 
tion of them upon others who arc not a part of us. 
These foreign creditors of ours are strangers who lent 
us their money when we wanted it ; upon no security 
but our word of honor. If we do not pay them back 
their money to the strict letter of our bargain, we incur 
a shame that can never be removed from us. We 
deprive New York of an element of strength which 



FINANCIAL AFFAIRS. 169 

heretofore has been wisely used, and wliicli its people 
have found profitable, to wit, its unquestioned credit. 

" Principle and policy unite to urge the action I 
recommend to you. It is the only way in which the 
State can, in truth, fulfil its contracts. It is the only 
way in which the State can keep itself in a position to 
go into the market hereafter decently as a borrower. 

"The State is even now in the market for money 
to pay its bounties to volunteers. The whole amount 
of the appropriation I urge upon you will be more 
than repaid in the first negotiation the State may make, 
by the enhanced price of its securities. We shall lose 
more in our immediate transactions, than the cost of 
providing the coin for this interest. Not only our 
future profit but our immediate gain will be served by 
adhering now to the strictest letter of our contracts. 

" The saving proposed by not paying in coin is 
small and temporary, while the dishonor is lasting; 
and the pecuniary loss consequent upon this dishonor, 
will be in the end enormous. 

" Bad faith on the part of New York, the leading 
member of our Confederacy, must, inevitably, weaken 
very greatly, if it does not destroy the credit of 
our Government security in foreign markets. Com- 
pared with the importance of this State action in its 
effect upon the credit of the Government, the cost of 
paying our interest in coin is insignificant. 

"Aside from the consideration of interest or policy, 
our duty, in my judgment, is plain. It is to pay the 
debts of the State ; to pay them in precisely the mode 
in which they were promised to be paid ; to keep the 



170 LIFE OF HORAriO SEYMOUR. 

honor of the State unsullied ; and to this plain duty 
we should be true, cost what it may. 

" Horatio Seymour." 

On the same day Governor Seymour issued an ap- 
peal " to men of capital, the bankers, the merchants, 
and others of the people of the State who have its 
honor at heart, whereby at least so much of the in- 
terest as belongs to non-resident creditors, if not the 
whole," might be paid in coin or its equivalent. The 
appeal was unsuccessful, and the efforts of the pa- 
triotic Governor to keep pure the honor of the State 
were fruitless. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

The Bogiis Proclamation of Mr, Lincoln — Deception practised upon Dem- 
ocratic Newspapers — Suppression of the "World" and "Journal of 
Commerce " — Highhanded Measures of the Administration — Gov- 
ernor Seymour's Action ia the Case — His Instructions to the District 
Attorney — Action in the Case — Refusal of the Grand Jury to do its 
Duty — The Governor's Instructions to Mr. Hall — Proceedings against 
General Dix and his Officers — Trial of the Case before Judge Russell 
— Decision of the Court — The Sequel — Meeting of the Chicago Con- 
vention — Mr. Seymour chosen President of that Body — Ilis Services 
during the Presidential Campaign — He procures the Passage of a 
Law for Collecting the Votes of the State Troops in the Field — 
Statement of the Provisions of this Law — Mr. Seymour again nom- 
inated for Governor by the Democratic State Convention — His Cir- 
cular to the Officers of the New York Troops in the Federal Service 
— His Anxiety for a fair Election — Measures on the part of the Gov- 
ernment to control the Election — The Reign of Terror — Proclama- 
tion by the Governor — The Election — How the Administration car- 
ried it — Mr. Seymour defeated by Mr. Fenton. 

On the 18th of May, 1864, there appeared in the 
Journal of Commerce and The World, of New York 
City, a proclamation purporting to have been issued 
by President Lincoln, setting apart the 26th of May 
as a day of fasting and prayer, and calling 400,000 
men into the service of the United States. This paper 
was delivered at the offices of these journals late on 
the night of the 17th, and in such a manner as to in- 
duce the belief that it was a genuine " Washington 
despatch." Soon after its publication, it was discovered 
to be a forgery, whereupon the fact was announced 



172 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

by the journals on their bulletin-boards, and a reward 
of five hundred dollars offered for the author of the 
paper. The editors of The World and Journal of 
Commerce^ at once informed General Dix of the for- 
gery, and gave him such information as they thought 
would be of service in his efforts to discover the author. 
As soon as the Government received information of the 
matter, orders were issued to General Dix to seize the 
offices of The World and Journal of Commerce^ to sup- 
press the publication of those papers, and imprison the 
editors and proprietors in Fort Layfayette — the Amer- 
ican Bastile. The order for the arrest and imprison- 
ment of these gentlemen was rescinded on the same 
day, but the publication of their papers was suspended 
for two days. The author of the proclamation was 
discovered, arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafayette, 
however, before the printing offices which had been 
seized were restored to their owners. He was detained 
in the fort several months, and then discharged without 
any further investigation of his offence. 

The outrage upon the newspapers excited the deep- 
est indignation on the part of the conservative citizens 
of the State ; and the conduct of the Government was 
seen to be all the more atrocious as the victims were 
entirely innocent of intentional wrong. 

Governor Sejanour determined to make it the occa- 
sion of testing the power of the General Government 
to outrao-e the liberties and rights of the citizens of his 
State, and on the 2 2d of May addi'essed the following 
letter to the District Attorney : 



letter to mr. hall. 173 

" State of New York, Executive Department, | 
"Albany, Mmj 2U, 1864. 3 

" To A. Oahey Hall^ District Attorney of the County 
of New York: 

"Sir: I am ad-sdsed that on the 19th iiist., the 
office of the Journal of Commerce and that of the Neiv 
York World were entered by armed men, the property 
of the owners seized, and the premises held by force 
for several daj's. It is charged that these acts of vio- 
lence were done without due legal process, and without 
the sanction of the State or national laws. 

" If this be true, the oifenders must be punished. 

"In the month of Julj^ last, wdien New York was 
a scene of violence, I gave warning that ' the laws of 
the State must be enforced, its peace and order main- 
tained, and the property of its citizens protected at 
every hazard.' The laws were enforced at a fearful 
cost of blood and life. 

"The declaration I then made was not intended for 
that occasion merely or against any class of men. It 
is one of an enduring character, to be asserted at all 
times, against all conditions of citizens, without favor 
or distinction. Unless all are made to bow to the law, 
it will be respected by none. Unless all are made se- 
cure in their rights of person and property, none can 
be protected. If the owners of the above-named jour- 
nals have violated State or national laws, they must be 
proceeded against and punished by those laws. Any 
action against them outside of legal procedures is 
criminal. At this time of civil war and disorder, the 



174 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

majesty of the law must be upheld, or society will sink 
into anarchy. 

" Our soldiers in the field will battle in vain for 
constitutional liberty, if persons, or property, or opin- 
ions are trampled on at home. We must not give up 
home freedom, and thus disgrace American characters 
while our citizens in the army are pouring out their 
blood to maintain the national honor. They must not 
find, when they come back, that their personal and fire- 
side rights have been despoiled. 

" In addition to the general obligation to enforce 
the laws of the land, there are local reasons why they 
must be upheld in the city of New York. If they are 
not, its commerce and greatness will be broken down. 
If this great centre of wealth, business, and enterprise 
is thrown into disorder and bankruptcy, the National 
Government will be paralyzed. What makes New 
York the heart of our country ? Why are its pulsa- 
tions felt at the extremities of our land ? Not through 
its position alone, but because of the world-wide belief 
that property is safe within its limits from waste by 
mobs and spoliation by Government. The laborers in 
the workshop, the mine, and in the field, on this conti- 
nent and in every other part of the globe, send to its mer- 
chants, for sale or exchange, the products of their toil. 
These merchants are made the trustees of the wealth 
of millions living in every land, because it is believed 
that in their hands property is safe under the shield 
of laws administered upon principles and according 
to known usages. 

"This great confidence has grown up in many 



LETTER TO MR. HALL. 175 

years by virtue of painstaking honest performance of 
duty by the business men of your city. In this they 
have been aided by the enforcement of laws based upon 
solemnly- recorded pledges that ' the people's right to 
be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and eflfects 
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not 
be violated, and that no one shall be deprived of lib- 
erty or property without the process of law.' For 
more than eighty years have we as a people been build- 
ing up this universal faith in the sanctity of our juris- 
prudence. It is this which carries our commerce upon 
every ocean, and brings back to our merchants the 
wealth of every clime. It is now charged that in utter 
disregard of the sanctity of that faith, at a moment 
when the national credit is undero-oino; a fearful trial, 
the organs of commerce are seized and held, in viola- 
tion of Constitutional pledges ; that this act was thus 
done in a public mart of your great city, and was thus 
forced upon the notice of the commercial agents of 
the world, and they were shown in an offensive way 
that property is seized by military force and arbitrary 
orders. These things are more hurtful to the national 
honor and strength than the loss of battles. 

" The world will confound such acts with the prin- 
ciples of our Government, and the folly and crimes of 
officials will be looked upon as the natural results of 
the spirit of our institutions. Our State imd local au- 
thorities must repel this ruinous interference. If the 
merchants of New York are not willing to have their 
harbor sealed up and their commerce paralyzed, they 
must unite in this demand for the security of persons 



176 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUE. 

and property. If this is not done, tlie world will 
withdraw from their keeping its treasures and its com- 
merce. History has taught all, that official violation 
of civil law and order goes before acts of spoliation 
and other measures which destroy the safeguards of 
commerce. 

" I call upon you to look into the acts connected 
with the seizure of the Journal of Commerce and of the 
New York Woi^ld. If these acts were illegal, the of- 
fenders must be punished. In making your inquiries 
and in prosecuting the parties implicated, you will call 
upon the Sheriff of the County and the heads of the 
police department for any needed force or assistance. 
The failure to give this by any official under vaj con- 
trol, will be deemed a sufficient cause for his removal. 
" Very respectfully, yours, &c., 

" HoEATio Seymour." 

Upon receipt of these instructions, the District 
Attorney laid the matter before the Grand Jury, who 
reported that it was " inexpedient to examine into the 
subject." The Governor thereupon sent Mr. Hall 
these further instructions : 

" Executive Chamber, ) 

Albany, June 2bth, 1864. j 
*'^. OaJcey Hall^ Esq., Dist. Attorney of the City and 
County of New Yorh : 
" Sir : In the matter of the seizure of the offices 
of the World and Journal of Commerce, the Grand 
Jury, in disregard of their oaths ' to diligently inquire 



INSTRUCTIONS TO MR. HALL. 177 

into and make the presentment of all such mat- 
ters and things as should be given them in charge,' 
have refused to make such inquiries, and declare that 
' it is inexpedient to examine into the subject referred 
to in the charge of the court,' with respect to such 
seizures. It becomes my duty under the express re- 
quirements of the Constitution 'to take care that the 
laws of the State are faithfully executed.' If the 
Grand Jury, in pursuance of the demands of the law 
and the obligations of their oaths, had inquired into 
the matter given them in charge by the Court and the 
Public Prosecutor, their decision, whatever it might 
have been, would have been entitled to respect. As 
they have refused to do their duty, the subject of the 
seizure of these journals should at once be brought 
before some proper magistrate. If you wish any assis- 
tance in the prosecution of these investigations, it will 
be given to you. 

" As it is a matter of public interest tho,t violations 
of the laws of the State be punished, the views or 
wishes of the parties immediately aifected must not be 
suffered to influence the action of public officers. If 
through fear or other motives, they are unwilling to 
aid you in getting at facts, it will be your duty to 
comjiel their attendance as witnesses in behalf of the- 
people. " PesjoectfuUy yours, 

"Horatio Seymour." 

On the 28th of June, the District Attorney made 
an affidavit before Judge Russell, of the City and 
County, who issued subpa?nas for witnesses. After 
12 



178 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

hearing the testimony of the witnesses, Judge Kussell 
issued warrants for the arrest of Major-General John 
A. Dix, Capt. Barstow, Major Bowles, Capt. Cundy, 
and Lieut. Tuthill, and placed these warrants in the 
hands of the Sheriff. 

The jDarties voluntarily appeared in Court by their 
counsel on the 6th of July, and were relieved from 
custody on the parole of General Dix. The argument 
of the case was ordered to be made on the 9th. The 
Counsel for the defence announced that the President 
had ordered General Dix to disregard the process of 
the Court and not to allow himself to be arrested or de- 
prived of his liberty. Information of this was at once 
telegraphed to Governor Seymour, who, on the 7th of 
July, ordered the District Attorney to enforce the law 
of the State without reo;ard to the President's order to 
General Dix to resist the process of the Court. 

The case was heard on July 9th, Judge Pierrepont 
and Mr. Evarts, the present Attorney- General of the 
United States, arguing in favor of the right of the 
President to order the suppression of the journals by 
General Dix, and JMr. Hall, and Gen. Cochrane, the 
Attorney-General of the State, sustaining the view of 
the case taken by the Governor. On the 1st of Au- 
gust, the judge delivered his decision. He said that, 
after a careful examination of the matter, he had con- 
cluded to hold General Dix and the other parties to 
the acts complained of, subject to the action of the 
Grand Jury of the City and County. He said : 

" It is unnecessary for me, in deciding this matter, 
to rehearse the facts of the case. The defendants. 



OPINION OF JUDGE RUSSELL. 179 

through their counsel, place themselves under the pro- 
tection of Section 4 of the Act of Congress of March 
3, 1863, entitled 'An Act relating to Habeas Corpus, 
and regulating judicial jDroceedings in certain cases.' 
If that provision is constitutional, it assimilates the 
President of the United States during the existence 
of the present rebellion, to an absolute monarch, and 
makes him incapable of doing any wrong. This is a 
very novel and startling doctrine to advance under a 
republican form of government. 

"I have given the case a most careful consideration; 
on the one hand, seeking to avoid an undue inter- 
ference with the agents of the Government in the per- 
formance of their duty, and, on the other, keeping 
before me my own obligation to uphold and enforce 
the laws of this State. I do not deem it proper to 
state in detail the view I entertain upon the legal prin- 
ciples so ably discussed before me by counsel upon 
both sides. Such an exposition of the law would be 
more appropriate should the case come before the Court 
for trial." 

The efforts of the Governor in behalf of the free- 
dom of his fellow-citizens were successful. The mili- 
tary authorities were made to recognize the supremacy 
of the civil law by their appearance in Court, though 
the President had ordered them not to appear. 

The National Democratic Convention met at Chi- 
cago on the 29th of August, 1864, for the purpose of 
nominatino- candidates for the offices of President and 

o 

Vice-President of the United States. It was organized 
by the election of Mr. Seymour as President of the 



180 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

Convention. His friends had insisted on placing his 
name before the Convention for the nomination for the 
Presidency of the United States ; but on the day before 
the organization of that body, he announced positively 
that he would not be a candidate. The Convention 
nominated General McClellan for the Presidency, and 
Hon. Geo. H. Pendleton for tlie Vice-Presidency. 

The cainpaign was an ardent and exciting contest, in 
which the Administration gave unmistakable evidence 
of its determination to carry the elections in its favor 
at any risk. 

As there were thousands of legal voters of the State 
of New York serving in the army, Governor Seymour 
had some time before this procured the passage of a 
Constitutional amendment by the Legislature, which 
was submitted to and approved by the people, author- 
izing the soldiers of the State in the service of the 
Union, who were legal voters, to take part in the 
election without returning home. In consequence of 
this authority from the people, a law was passed by the 
Legislature, and approved by the Governor on the 21st 
of April, 18G4, prescribing the manner in which the 
elections should be held m the army and navy. 

This law extends the right to vote in time of war, 
to qualified electors " in the actual military service of 
the United States, in the army or navy thereof, who 
shall be absent from the State of New York on the 
day of election." The right thus extended is by the 
terms of the law expressly restricted to the officers and 
enlisted men actually in the military service, and is not 
granted to sutlers, clerks, teamsters, officers' servants, 



THE ARMY ELECTION LAW. 181 

and other camp followers. They could vote only at 
their own homes in the State. If any soldier or sailor 
is in the State on election day, he can vote only at the 
precinct in which he resides. The right given to volun- 
teers is also extended to qualified citizens of the State 
who are members of the regular army, and to those 
who may be members of the militia regiments absent 
from the State at the time, in the service of the United 
States. 

" An elector authorized to vote by the provisions 
of the law, can do so at any time within the sixty days 
next previous to the election. For that purpose, he 
must execute a proxy, authorizing any elector of the 
to^\Ti or city in which he resides, whom he may name 
in the proxy, to deliver his vote to the inspectors of 
the election district, in which the voter resides, on the 
day of the election. The proxy must be signed by the 
person voting, and must also be attested by a sub- 
scribing witness and sworn to before any field-officer, 
captain, adjutan,t, or commandant of any company or 
detachment on detached service, in the service of the 
United States, and commissioned as officers in the 
volunteer force of the State of New York ; or, if the 
absent elector is in the navy, before 'the captain or 
commandant of any vessel in the naval service of the 
United States to which the said absent elector may 
belong or be attached.' The voter is also required to 
make and subscribe before any such officer an affidavit 
of his qualification as an elector. 

" The elector can vote ' for all officers for whom he 
would have a right to vote if he were present ' at the 



182 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

election. He must fold his ballots and inclose them 
with his proxy in an envelope, duly sealed, on the out- 
side of which must be his affidavit of qualification as 
an elector. The envelope must be enclosed in another 
envelope, which must be sealed and directed to the 
person authorized by the proxy to cast the vote, and 
transmitted to him ' by mail or otherwise.' 

" The person to whom the proxy is directed may 
open the outer envelope, but not the inner one. On 
the day of the election he must deliver the inner en- 
velope to the inspectors at the polls. If the name of 
the soldier making the affidavit of qualification as a 
voter, endorsed on the envelope, is on the list of reg- 
istered electors, the inspectors will oj^en the envelope 
and deposit the ballots in the appropriate boxes. If 
the name is not on the list, an affidavit must be made 
by ' a householder of the district,' that he knows the 
soldier to be ' a resident of the district,' or the envelope 
will not be opened, and the soldier will lose his vote. 
The affidavit required is only to prove residence, and 
the law provides no separate affidavit of qualification 
of colored men, as required by the Constitution." * 

During the month of September, the Democratic 
State Convention nominated Mr, Seymour for reelec- 
tion to the Governor's chair, and the Kepublicans put 
forward the Hon. Kueben E. Fenton as their candi- 
date. The election was held in November together 
with the Presidential election. 

As the political campaign progressed, Governor 
Seymour addressed the following circular, with refer- 

* Annual Cyclopaedia, 186-i, pp. 5S1-582. 



CIRCULAR TO OFFICERS. 183 

ence to the act to authorize soldiers to vote, to the com- 
mandants and suro'eons of New York reo;iments in the 

O CD 

field: 

1 



" State of New York, Executive Department, 
"Albany, SejJt. 30, 1864. 



" To o/N. Y. 8. Vols. : 

" The Legislature of this State, at its last session, 
passed an act which received my signature and became 
a law, on the 21st of April, 1864, entitled 'an act to 
enable the qualified electors of this State, absent there- 
from in the military service of the United States, in 
the army or navy thereof, to vote.' 

" This act inaugurates a new feature in our system 
of elective franchise, and I feel it incumbent upon me 
to call your attention to its provisions, and to ask that 
you see it faithfully and impartially carried out. The 
act provides for this in the following section: 

" ' Sec. 13. Any officer of the State or of tlie United 
States^ or any other person^ who shall directly control 
or attempt to control any such enlisted elector in the 
exercise of any of his rights under this act^ hy menace^ 
hrilery^ fear of jnmishment^ hope of reioard^ or any 
other corrupt or arhitrary measure^ or resort whatever^ 
to annoy^ infure^ or otherxcise punish any such o'fficer 
or tnan^for the manner in which he may have exercised 
any such right., shall le deemed guilty of an offence 
against the sovereignty of this State^ which shall he 
p)unished as a misdemeanor^ and for which he may he 
indicted and tried at any future time., when he may he 
found within the limits of the State ; and upon con- 



ICE, ] 

L i 



184 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

motion lie shall he imprisoned for a term not exceeding 
one year^ and fined in a sum not exceeding one tliowsand 
dollars^ and lie slicdl cdso tlienccfortli he ineligille^ after 
conviction^ to hold any office in this State.'' 

" The twelfth section of the act herein referred to, 
provides for the preparation, by the Secretary of State, 
of blank forms and envelopes, which, together ^dth 
copies of the soldiers' voting act, have been forwarded 
by express to the different regiments and battalions of 
New York State volunteers in the United States 
service, and to the sick and wounded New York sol- 
diers in U. S. hospitals, under the following order : 

' War Department, Adjutant General's Office, 

'Washington, August 8, 1864. 
' Special Orders No. 262. 

'19. All officers in the militaiy service of the Uni- 
ted States ivill render every facility to such Express 
Companies as may he charged hy the Governor of N^eiv 
York ivith the delivery of the necessary forms and 
hlanks o^equired to secure the votes of soldiers of that 
State in the field, ivith a view to the hlanks heing de- 
livered with the least p)ractical delay. 

''By order of the Secretary of War. 

'E. D. Townsend, 
' \_Offiicial.'] Assistant Adjutant Genercd. 

' E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant GeneraV 

" I send you a set of ballots prepared by the friends 
of General McCIellan, and have requested the Secre- 
tary of State to forward to you a set prepared by the 
friends of Mr. Lincoln. 



CIRCULAR TO OFFICERS. 185 

" The State and Local Committees of the two polit- 
ical parfies will send you the necessary number of 
ballots. 

" You can do much towards securing to your offi- 
cers and men a fair expression of their political prefer- 
ences, if you will detail one or more officers of your 
command of each political party, to distribute the bal- 
lots and to aid soldiers and commissioners in filling up 
the requisite powers of attorney. You are also re- 
quested to use every effi^rt to send forward the envel- 
opes, containing the powers of attorney and ballots, to 
the electors in the several election districts of this 
State, named on the back thereof — either by express 
or mail, or through such reliable commissioners as may 
visit your command. 

" I feel confident that every officer from New York 
will feel an honorable pride in seeing that the laws of 
his State are carried out according to their letter and 
spirit, and that they will jirotect all under their care 
in the full and free exercise of their personal and polit- 
ical rights. Truly yours, &c., 

"Horatio Seymour." 

On the 28th of October, General Dix issued an 
order, warning all persons fi^om attempting to interfere 
with the elections, and taking measures to prevent the 
incursions of any armed partisans of the enemy into 
the State from Canada, as the Government affected to 
believe there was danger of this. The true motive of 
the Administration was doubtless to inspire terror in 
the hearts of the timid members of the Democratic 



186 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

party, and keep them away from the polls on election 
day. Other orders, having the same object in view, 
were issued, and good care was taken by the Adminis- 
tration to let it be known that it would regard voting 
the Democratic ticket as an " act of disloyalty." So 
thoroughly, indeed, was this understood that many 
persons feared the election would be controlled by 
armed force. To calm this state of feeling and encour- 
age every citizen to assert his right, the Governor issued 
the following proclamation : 

" Executive Chamber, Albany, ) 
"- November 2d, 1864. j 

" In a few days the citizens of this country are to 
exercise their constitutional duty of electing a Presi- 
dent and Vice-President of the United States, at a 
time when the condition of our country excites the 
deepest interest. 

" The questions of the day not only affect the per- 
sonal welfare of all, and the happiness of their homes, 
but also are of a character to arouse the passions and 
lead to angry controversies between parties. 

"The existence of a terrible civil war and the as- 
sertion of the right of military commanders in some 
sections of our country to interfere with elections, have 
caused painful and exciting doubts in the minds of 
many with regard to the free and untrammelled exer- 
cise of the elective franchise. I therefore appeal to all 
men of all political parties to unite with those holdhig 
official positions, in their eiforts to allay undue excite- 
ment, soften the harshness of party prejudices and pas- 



PROCLAMATION OF THE GOVERNOR. 187 

sions, and to avoid all measures which tend to strife 
or disorder. 

" However we may differ in our views of public 
j^olicy, we are alike interested in the maintaining of 
order, in the presers' ation of the rights and the promo- 
tion of the prosperity of our State. 

"While we do not agree as to the methods by 
which these ends are to be gained, they are earnestly 
sought by all. 

" It is certain they cannot be reached by angrj- con- 
troversies, unreasonable suspicions or disorderly ac- 
tions. 

" There are no well-o;rounded facts that the riojhts 
of the citizens of New York will be trampled upon at 
the polls. 

" The power of this State is ample to protect all 
classes in the free exercise of their political duties. In 
doing this the public authorities will be upheld by good 
citizens of all parties. 

" There is no reason to doubt that the coming 
election will be conducted with the usual quiet and 
order. 

" Sheriffs of counties, and all other officers whose 
duty it is to keep the peace and protect our citizens, 
will take care that every voter shall have a free ballot 
in the manner secured to him by the Constitution and 
laws. It will be their duty to see that no military or 
other oro;anized forces shall be allowed to show them- 
selves in the vicinity of the places where elections are 
held, with any view of menacing or intimidating citi- 
zens in attendance thereon. Against any such inter- 



188 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

ference they must exercise the full force of the law, 
and call forth, if need be, the power of their districts. 
" In witness whereof I have hereunto signed 

ray name, and affixed the Privy Seal of the 
[l. s.] State, at the city of Albany, this 2d day of 

November, in the year of Our Lord 1864. 

" Horatio Seymour. 
" By the Governor : 

"D. WiLLERS, Jr., Private Secretary." 

Governor Seymour made frequent and eloquent 
addresses during the Presidential campaign, in favor 
of the choice of General McClellan by the people. 
The election was held on the Stli of November, and 
throuffh the indirect interference of the Government, 
resulted in the reelection of President Lincoln by a 
majority of 406,812 in a poll of 4,004,850 votes. 
Had there been a fair election, there is no doubt Gen- 
eral McClellan would have been successful, but so 
great was the terror inspired by the Government, that 
many Democrats stayed away from the polls, and in 
the Border States, at least, many were prevented from 
exercising their right of suffrage on the ground that 
voting for McClellan was "an act of disloyalty." In 
this way the Pepublicans carried the country, and 
forced upon an unwilling people a continuance of their 
rule. 

In the contest for Governor, Mr. Seymour was de- 
feated by Mr. Fenton, by keeping back the soldiers' votes. 
More than enough ballots to change the result were de- 
livered at the post-offices after the election was over. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Efforts of the Governor to secure a fair Vote in tbe Army — Alleged 
Fraud on the part of State Agents — Arrest of Colonel North 
and others — They are imprisoned in the Old Capitol — Governor 
Seymour resolved to defend their Rights as Citizens of New 
York — Cummissioners sent to Washington — His Letter of In- 
struciions — Action of the Commissioners — Their Interview with the 
Secretary of War — Their first Requests complied with — They Visit the 
Prisoners — Inhuman Treatment of its Prisoners by the Administra- 
tion — No Charges made against them — The Letter of the Commis- 
sioners to the Secretary of War — Statement of the Case — Tlie Gov- 
ernment without Jurisdiction in the matter — Reply of the War De- 
partment — The Sovereignty of New York outraged by the Admin- 
istration — Departure of the Commissioners — Persecution of Colonel 
North and his Companions — Their Acquittal and subsequent Cap- 
tivity — Slanders of the Republicans upon Governor Seymour — Their 
Shallowness — Mr. Seymour retires to Private Life — The Democratic 
State Convention — Tribute to President Johnson — Mr. Se\mour'8 
Speech at Cooper Institute in June, 1868 — A magnificent Effort — 
Review and Denunciation of the Republican Policy — The Radicals 
exposed to the Public Scurn. 

In order to carry out the law for the casting of the 
ballots of the New York troops in the field, Governor 
Seymour appointed agents on the part of the State, 
and sent them, to various points where the New York 
troops were serving, to collect and forward the bal- 
lots. 

On the 27th of October, in order to make sure of 
the success of its schemes for carrying the Presidential 
election, the Government determined to take measures 



190 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

to prevent the full vote of the State of New York 
from being cast in that contest. On that day the 
New York Agency at "Washington City was closed, 
and Colonel Samuel North, Levi Cohn, and M. M. 
Jones, the jDarties in charge of it, were seized and im- 
prisoned in the Old Capitol prison, by order of the 
War De2:)artment. 

This high-handed outrage excited the deepest in- 
dignation on the part of the Democrats. It was well 
known that the gentlemen referred to were entirely in- 
nocent of any crime, and the fact that the Government 
brought no charges against them, was convincing proof 
that it knew them to be guiltless of wrong when it ar- 
rested them. 

Thousands of ballots, en route from the army to the 
State of New York, to be cast by the proxies of the 
men in the field, were seized by the Government and 
detained until after the election, when they were de- 
livered with the most unblushing impudence. 

A military commission was called to meet in 
Washington to try Colonel North and his associates 
in the State Agency, but neither those gentlemen nor 
their friends were allowed to know the nature of the 
offences with which they were accused. They were 
thus openly made the victims of a deliberate and 
undisguised persecution, which has no parallel in our 
history. The charges on which they were finally tried 
were, conduct prejudicial to good order and military 
discipline, and fraud toward the New York State elec- 
tors in that they forged the names of officers and sol- 
diers to what purported to be ballots of said soldiers. 



PERSECUTION OF COL. NORTH. 191 

to be used at the election. They were also charged 
with falsely and fraudulently issuing divers and sundry 
blanks, which purported to be signed by officers and 
soldiers in the military service of the United States, 
authorizing certain parties to cast their votes at the 
ensuing State and national election, with the intent to 
defraud the true elector of his rights. 

The Government, as we have said, had no ground 
for suspecting Col. North or his companions, and was 
influenced solely by a wicked and reckless determina- 
tion to carry the election in New York by withholding 
the ballots of the soldiers, producing confusion in the 
election, and thus depriving by force the citizens of a 
free State of the rights guaranteed them by the Con- 
stitution which those engaged in the outrage had 
sworn to support. Colonel North was the duly ac- 
credited agent of the State of New York, appointed to 
look after the interests of the volunteers from that State 
in Washington ; Mr. Cohn was the paymaster of the 
State, temporarily in Washington for the purpose of 
paying the State bounties to reenlisted men ; and Mr. 
Jones, was connected with the State agency as Visitor 
of Hospitals, All these gentlemen had well and faith- 
fully discharged their duties to the satisfaction of the 
State authorities, and the Government had no just 
cause of complaint against them. Their arrest was 
dictated by partisan hostility on the part of the Secre- 
tarv of War. Had the charo-es brousrht airainst them 

V coo 

been true, the Government would have had no power 
to try or punish them, as the oifence was one against the 
State of New York, and not against the United States. 



192 LIFE OF HORATIO SEY3I0UR. 

Feelinsf that the rio;hts of these victims of the 
War Department, who were citizens of New York, 
and entitled to the protection of that State, had been 
infringed. Governor Seymour, who was well aware 
of the despotic manner in which the War Depart- 
ment treated its victims, determined to send a com- 
mission, composed of three of the leading men of 
the State, to Washington, to look into the matter, and 
also to endeavor to procure and forward the soldiers' 
ballots which had been seized by the Government, in 
order that such as were legal might be cast at the 
approaching election. Accordingly, on the 30th of 
October, he issued the follo^ving order : 

" Albany, October 30. 
" To Amasa J. Parhei\ William F. Alleiij and Wil- 
liam Kelly^ greeting : 

" It being reported that Col. Samuel North, agent 
of the State of New York at Washington, together 
with certain other citizens of this State, not in the 
military or naval service of the United States, have 
been placed in arrest by the military authorities of the 
United States, and no reason for such arrest havmg 
been given to me, and being anxious to learn the 
fact of such arrest and the grounds therefor, to the 
end that no innocent persons may be imprisoned 
without a fair and speedy trial, and that no obsta- 
cle may be put in the way of soldiers of this State 
having a fair ballot, according to its laAvs ; 

" Know you that I, Horatio Seymour, Governor 
of the State of New York, do hereby appoint you, 



DEPARTURE OF COMMISSIONERS. 193 

Amasa J. Parker, William F. Allen, and William 
Kelly, Commissioners for and in behalf of the State 
of New York, and do authorize and direct you and each 
of you forthwith to proceed to the City of Wash- 
ington as such Commissioners, there to inquire into 
the facts and circumstances relatins: to such arrests 
and alleged causes thereof, and to take such action 
in the premises as will vindicate the laws of the State 
and the rights and liberties of its citizens, to the end 
that justice may be done, and that all attempts to pre- 
vent soldiers from this State, m ser\dce of the United 
States, from voting, or to defraud them, to coerce their 
action in voting, or to detain or alter the votes already 
cast by them in pursuance of the laws of this State, 
may be exposed and punished, and that you report 
your proceedings to me with all convenient speed. 

"Horatio Seymour. 
" D. WiLLERS, Jr., Private Secretary." 

The gentlemen thus appointed at once repaired to 
Washington, reaching that city on the 31st of October, 
when they immediately entered upon their duties. 
They sought and obtained a preliminary interview with 
the Secretary of AVar, in which they stated their bus- 
iness, after Avhich they submitted to him the following 
written request : 

" The undersigned request the Secretary of War 
that he will give them an order to receive the soldiers' 
votes which have been taken and are now in the cus- 
tody of the Provost-Marshal at the New York agency 
in this cit}^, as further delay to forward the votes may 
13 



194 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

make it too late to use them at the approaching elec- 
tion. 

" They also request that the blanks in the office of 
the New York agency in this city may be handed over 
to an agent of the State of New York, to be used, and 
that the agents may be permitted to proceed and take 
further soldiers' ballots, to be forv\^arded to the State 
of New York ; and that a military officer of the New 
York volunteers may be designated by the Department 
to attend at the New York agency to administer oaths 
to voters. 

" The undersigned also request a copy of the char- 
ges against Col. North, and the others in custody. 

" Also, a permit for the undersigned to see Colonel 
North and the others in custody, and to make provi- 
sion for furnishing counsel to defend them." 

The Secretar}^ granted the requests, and gave the 
necessary orders to his subordinates for their com- 
pliance. Several hundred ballots which had been de- 
tained five days, which were all that had been seized, 
were recovered, and the Commissioners Avere allowed 
to visit the victims of the War Department in their 
prison. Their account of the condition in which they 
found these innocent men is so fair a picture of the 
manner in which the Government treated its politi- 
cal prisoners during the war, that we quote the fol- 
lowing from their report to the Governor. 

" The undersigned availed themselves of the permit 
granted them to visit Colonel North, M. M. Jones, and 
Levi Cohn. They found them in the ' Carroll priso7i,'' 
in close confinement. They then learned that Messrs. 



BRUTAL TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. 195 

North and Cohn liad heeii confined together in one 
room, and had 7iot heen lyerinitted to leave it for a 7no- 
ment during the four days tliey had heen prisoners, even 
for thepwpose of answering the calls of nature. They 
hadleen supplied ii^ith meagre and coarse prison rations, 
to he eaten in their room where they constantly hreathed 
tliefoul atTnosphere arising from the standing odor. 
They had no vessel out of xvhich to drink water, except 
the one furnished them for p)urposes of urination. They 
had hut one chair, and had slept three of the nights of 
their confinement upon a sach of straw on the floor. 
They had not heen permitted to see ct newspaper, and 
ivere ignorant of the cause of their arrest. All com- 
municationhetiveen them and the outer world had been 
denied tliem, and no friend had heen cdloived to see 
them. The undersigned complained to the acting super- 
intendent, who seemed humanely disposed, hut justi- 
fied his course hy the prison rules and the instruction 
of his superiors. The undersigned afterwards com- 
plained of the treatment of these persons to the Judge 
Advocate, and also the Secretary of War and the 
Assistant Secretary, and were happy to learn at sub- 
sequent visits to the prisoners that the severities were 
relaxed and their condition made more tolerable. But 
at neither of these visits made to the prisoners hy the 
undersigned, were they permitted to see them without a 
special permit and only in the presence of an officer of 
the prison ^ 

The Commissioners next made application to the 
Judge Advocate for a copy of the charges agauist Col- 
onel North, but without success. They reported to 
the Governor upon this point, as follows : 



196 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

"From the best investigations the undersigned 
have been able to make, though there may have been 
irregularities, they have found no evidence that any 
frauds, either against any elector or the elective fran- 
chise, have been committed by any person connected 
Avith the New York agency." 

The Commissioners then delivered to the Secretary 
of War the following communication as presenting 
their case, together with a copy of their commission, 
and asked that the papers might be filed •udth the 
papers of the War Department. 

"WillxVrd's Hotel, | 

Washington, Nov. 1st. ) 
" To Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of ^Yar : 

" Sir : We bes: leave to submit to and leave with 
you a copy of the commission from his Excellency the 
Governor of the State of New York, under which we 
act in behalf of that State. From it you will perceive 
the nature of the duties assigned to us. 

" In accordance with the suggestion made by your- 
self at our first interview yesterday, we take the lil> 
erty of submitting in writing our claims in respect to 
the imprisonment of Col. Samuel North, Mr. Levi 
Cohn, and Mr. Morven M. Jones, now and since Thurs- 
day last in close confinement in the Old Capitol prison. 

" You are aware that they were, at the time of 
their arrest, in this city (Washington) as agents of 
the State under authority from the proper depart- 
ments, to look after the interests and care for the sol- 
diers fi'om the State of New York in the service of 



LETTER OF THE COMmSSIONERS. 197 

the United States. They were not in the military or 
naval service of the United States, and by no law of 
which we are aware were they subject to the martial 
and military laws of the United States, or to the 
orders of the War Department. 

" Since our interview with yourself yesterday, we 
have seen Col. North in the presence of his keeper. 
By an inadvertent omission in our permit, we did not 
see the other prisoners. 

" We have also had interviews with Col. Forster, 
the Judge Advocate, having, as we understand, charge 
of the cases of the persons named, and have endeav- 
ored to learn the character of the offences charged 
against Col. North and the others named, an*l the 
nature of the charo;es made against them, and the 
character of the proofs. This was important to enable 
us to inquire into and prevent any attempt or antici- 
pated frauds upon the election laws of our State, if 
any such were threatened. The proofs are withheld 
from us. 

" The charges, so far as we can learn, are not for the 
violation of any law of the United States, but relate 
to acts purporting to have been done under the law of 
the State of New York concerning elections, and 
making provisions for soldiers voting in that State, it 
being claimed that certain irregularities have intervened 
which give reason to suspect that frauds and forgeries 
are intended, and may be consummated. 

" The suspected and anticipated fraud have respects 
solely to the election laws of the State of New York, 
and the action of the Government in making the ar- 



198 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

rest is claimed to be justified upon the ground that 
unless thus prevented frauds will be perpetrated against 
the ballot-box at the approaching election in the State 
of New York. 

"We beg leave, in behalf of the State, respectfully 
to protest against this jurisdiction, assumed as well 
over the alleged offence as over the persons of the ac- 
cused, -svho are citizens of the State, in its employ, 
and entitled to its protection. 

" The proper business of the State agenc}^ is greatly 
interfered with by the arrest and detention of the 
agents, and the State is deprived of its proper juris- 
diction and its agents and citizens, over offences 
against its laws, and over its o-^ti ballot-box, and the 
exercise of the elective franchise mthin its limits. 

"We therefore must earnestly, and at the same 
time most respectfully, demand, as we think we ma}' 
properly do in behalf of the State, the release of the 
persons named from arrest, that they may resume 
their business at the agency, if the Governor shall see 
fit to continue them. 

"We also ask and would urge a compliance with 
our request that all the proofs in possession of the 
Government of the United States tendins^to show anv 
wrongful acts or irregularities on the part of these 
agents may be furnished us, that we may report them 
to the Governor or other proper authority, to the end 
that the unfaithful agents may be removed, and if 
guilty of any offence, that they may be properly pun- 
ished. 

"We do not consider this a proper occasion to 



LETTEK OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 199 

argue the question of jurisdiction, but it may be fit 
and proper to suggest some grounds upon which we 
think the arrests are without jurisdiction, that you 
may have them before you when you pass upon . our 
demands. 

" 1st. We claim that the military authorities of 
the United States have no jurisdiction of the persons 
of the individuals named ; that they are not in the 
military service of the United States, or in any way 
subject to the orders of the military authorities ; that 
they are the servants of the State of New York, sub- 
ject to its authority and amenable to its laws. 

" 2d. We claim that the acts charged, if proved to 
have been committed, are not offences against any law 
of Congress or any rule or order of the War Depart- 
ment made by authority of law. 

" 3d. We claim that the acts, if offences at all, are 
only offences against the laws of the State of New 
York, and punished by those laws only. 

" 4th. The papers, whether incomplete and irregu- 
lar, and simply giving evidence, as is claimed, of an 
intended violation of the laws of New York, or com- 
plete in form, although forgeries in fact (if it is claimed 
there are any such, of which we are not informed), are 
evidence of no crime against the United States, and 
are of no value anywhere except in New York, where 
alone they can be used in the perpetration of any 
fraud, and that fraud would be against the sovereignty, 
the laws, and the people of that State. 

" 5th. It is not to be presumed that the laws of 
New York are insufficient to guard against fraud of the 



200 LIFE OF IIOEATIO SEY5I0UR. 

character anticipated, or that they would be so badly 
administered that the frauds can be successfully accom- 
plished, or if accomplished that the guilty would go 
unpunished. 

" But if this were not so, and it were morally cer* 
tarn that the frauds could and would be accomplished 
with impunity, the General Government would have 
no jurisdiction in the premises. 

" 6th. The alleged fraudulent act would not be an 
offence ao:ainst the soldier in the field. He cannot be 
deprived of his p/oper vote by any number of for- 
geries, and the presentation and reception of fictitious 
votes affect the whole people of the State and not the 
soldier alone. 

" 7th. If the acts alleged could deprive the soldier 
of any right, it would be a right pertaining to him as 
a citizen and not as a soldier. He votes, if he votes 
at all, as a citizen of the State, and not as a soldier of 
the United States. For protection in his rights as a 
citizen he looks to the State only. 

" We will add that the laws of the State provide 
that parties guilty of the acts of which the parties 
named are suspected, shall upon their return to the 
State be punished. 

" In this connection we would refer to the cases of 
Ferry and Donohue, who, we learn, have been re- 
cently tried at Baltimore for acts to some extent of the 
same character as those charged upon Messrs. North, 
Cohn, and Jones. 

" Ferry and Donohue were, at the time of their 
arrest, in Baltimore, in the capacity of State agents, 



LETTER OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 201 

under authority from Governor Seymour, and if we 
are not entirely mistaken in our views of the case, their 
trial was a nullity, for want of jurisdiction in the court 
or commission by which they v/ere tried. 

" We therefore ask that these men be surrendered 
by the United States Government to the State Govern- 
ment, that they may be tried, and if guilty of any 
offence against the laws, be suitably punished. 

" Permit us also respectfully to suggest, without 
desiring to reflect upon any of the agents of the De- 
partments, that the haste with which such trials were 
pressed through, and their ex 'parte character, the 
accused being without counsel, especially in a time of 
intense partisan feeling like the present, and before a 
court of supposed party bias, without at all bringing 
m question the integrity of the court, may well lead 
the public to distrust the fairness of the trial. We 
submit that if jurisdiction of the alleged offences is to 
be assumed and exercised by a military tribunal, it 
should not be the means of depriving the accused of 
the presumption of innocence, or the aid of counsel, or 
of ample time to prepare for the defence. 

" The undersigned beg leave to ask for an early 
reply ; and are, respectfully, 

" Your obedient servants, 

" Amasa J. Parker, 
"W. F.Allen, 
" William Kelly." 

The Secretary of War referred this communication 
to the Judge Advocate General, Mr. Holt. The Com- 



202 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

missioners then asked that the trial might be postponed 
until after the election ; and that if their request for 
the surrender of the prisoners to the State of New York 
should be refused, they might be released on parole. 
On the same day, the Secretary of War replied to the 
Commissioners, through Colonel Hardie, of the De- 
partment, that Judge Holt had reported on the com- 
munication given above, as follows : 

" The within paper is not regarded as presenting 
any legal grounds for postponing the trials referred to. 
It is believed that the cases should be allowed to take 
the ordinary course. * * * It is expected that the 
trials of these parties will be proceeded with to-morrow. 
No reason is perceived, therefore, for paroling them." 

" Such being the view of the Chief of the Bureau 
of Military Justice," continued Colonel Hardie, " the 
Secretary of War does not feel authorized to pursue a 
different course on the applications presented by you." 

After some further correspondence with the Gov- 
ernment, the Commissioners left the city for Albany. 
They wrote to the Governor, reviewing their course, and 
concluded their report as follows : 

" Under these circumstances, after having retained 
counsel for the persons accused, the labors of the under- 
signed are brought to a close, their power is exhausted, 
and nothing remains but to report their proceedings. 

" The demands made in behalf of the State of New 
York are thus refused. The persons arrested are to be 
summarily tried before a military commission, clearly, 
in our opinion, without jurisdiction, in violation of 
their personal rights, in usurpation of the just powers 



PEESECUTION OF PRISONERS. 203 

of our State, and in the midst of an exciting political 
contest ; and though, up to this time, the morning of 
Thursday the 3d of November, when we are leaving 
Washington, no charges have been served on the ac- 
cused, and perhaps none have yet been framed, yet 
we are told the trial shall proceed immediately, and 
that the time asked for to procure witnesses for the 
defence shall not be afforded." 

This " speedy trial " was prolonged by the Govern- 
ment for many weeks, and the victims of the tyranny 
of the War Dej^artment were subjected to an imprison- 
ment of three months, during which time they suffered 
many privations and hardships. The Court or Com- 
mission acquitted Colonel North, and Messrs. Cohn 
and Jones, of the charges brought against them, com- 
pletely exonerating them from all blame in their con- 
duct ; hut the Government arbitrarily forced them, ivith 
the full proof of their innocence in its possession, to sub- 
mit to their barbarous imprisonme7it for nineteen days 
after the verdict of the Coui^t ivas formally rendered. 

The Hepublicans labored hard to induce the people 
of the State to believe that Governor Seymour had en- 
couraged and assisted certain parties in their efforts to 
obtain fraudulent soldiers' votes ; but the trial of Col. 
North, and his companions, showed the utter falsity 
of these charges. It was also shown that the Governor 
endeavored, by every means in his power, to have a 
full and fair vote polled by the troops ; and that he 
urged the Secretary of State,' a Republican, to appoint 
agencies " consisting of one Democrat and one Repub- 
lican to visit the array together and receive the soldiers' 



204 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

votes in a public manner, so as to avoid all possibility 
of fraud, and that no notice was taken of Governor 
Seymour s letters. The inference that the Republicans 
preferred separate secret action, to aid in obtaining 
fraudulent votes, is clearly to be drawn from the 
recorded evidence on file in the War Department. The 
facilities for accomplishing such purposes were in pro- 
portion to the number of Republican commissioned 
ofiicers. Although it is well known that two thirds 
of the rank and file of the army were Democrats, the 
Republicans held three fourths of all the commissions. 
In this lay the power of that party to control what 
should be returned as the soldier-vote. Governor Sey- 
mours action on this occasion was honorable and just, 
and above suspicion." * 

Fortunately for Mr. Seymour, his acts have all been 
open and frank. They have never required conceal- 
ment, and he has never desired any for them, and when 
his enemies assail him he has only to point to them for 
his vindication. 

]\Ir. Seymour retired from the Governor s chair on 
the 1st of January, 1865, and was succeeded by Gov- 
ernor Fenton. From that time he devoted himself 
to his private affairs, presenting himself to the 
people for no public office. He gave his best ef- 
forts, however, to the cause of the Democratic party 
in his State, and contributed in no slight degree to the 
glorious victories wdiich have marked the recent his- 
tory of the New York Democracy. 

In the Democratic State Convention, which met in 
* Democracy in the United States, p. 868. 



TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT JOHNSOI^. 205 

March, 1868, he delivered an address of great elo- 
quence and force, in which he paid the following tribute 
to that lion-hearted defender of the Constitution who 
now fills the Executive Chair of the nation : 

" I have no political prejudices in fixvor of Mr. 
Johnson. I have never seen him. He is not one I 
helped to place in office, nor have I ever advised him 
or been consulted by him as to his policy. I know he 
has been cheated and betrayed by those about him, who 
plotted his destruction from the outset. But while he 
has been most unhappy in his friends, no man has been 
so fortunate in his enemies. They have given him a 
high place in history as one who suffered for the rights 
of the American people. And when he shall go to his 
final account, and his friends seek in clear, terse, and 
lasting terms to tell that he was a man who loved his 
country, and was hated by the corrupt and treasonable, 
they have but to chisel upon his tombstone that he 
Avas impeached by this House of Representatives and 
condemned by this Senate." 

This Convention nominated Mr. Seymour as a 
delegate from his district to the National Democratic 
Convention to meet in New York on the 4th of July, 
1868. 

On the 25th of June, 1868, a mass meetmg of the 
Jackson Central Association, and the Democracy in 
general of New York, was held at Cooper Institute. 
The immense hall was crowded to excess, as it was 
known that Governor Seymour would address the meet- 
ing? 

Shortly after eight o'clock, Mr. Thomas J. Crea- 



206 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

mer, the President of the Association, rose and intro- 
duced the orator of the evening, Ex-Governor Sej'inour. 
Mr. Seymour was received with enthusiastic applause. 
He said : 

" We see in every part of our land proofs of a 
wide-spread change in political feeling. As the evils 
of misgovernment unfold themselves, the best men of 
the Republican Party are driven from its ranks. At 
its late Convention its policy was shaped in a great 
degree by those who are most violent in their pas- 
sions and most brutal in the policy they urge upon the 
people. While the ablest Republicans refuse to go on 
with a party which tramples upon the judiciary, 
usurps power, and is unsettling all ideas of j)olitical 
moralit}', and unhinging all the business machinery of 
our land, we are laboring under some embarrassments 
from the great volume of the change in our favor. 
Those who are rallying around the standard of con- 
stitutional rio^hts have heretofore held conflictino; views 
with ]*egard to the events of the past eight years, 
and the question is, how can we set this great majority 
in the field so arrayed that they can drive out of 
place the disciplined and desperate horde of office-hold- 
ers who now misgovern our country ? This is the 
only problem to be settled. The American people are 
disgusted with the conduct of the Congressional party. 
Can we mark out a policy which will unite the major- 
ity of our standard? This can only be done by a 
thoughtful, forbearing, unselfish course. At the same 
. time we must be outspoken and nmst confront all the 
questions which perplex us. iMcn look forward ^vith 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 207 

hope and fear to the action of the National Conven- 
tion on the Fourth of July. I shall not speak of can- 
didates. Let the claims of each one be considered 
in a courteous and kindly spirit, and let us take 
care that no personal partisanship shall draw us aside 
from our duty to our country. We should support, 
with hearty zeal, every upholder of constitutional 
rights. It is upon discord in our ranks that our 
oj)ponents build their hopes. A party born of strife 
naturally looks to selfish passions to keep it alive. 
Let this hope be crushed out by our action. It will, in 
the present state of our country, be an unholy thing 
to go into the July Convention with any purpose which 
shall not have in view the rescue of our Government 
from the men who now have it in hand. The next 
election will be controlled by thoughtful, business and 
laboring men. No party can gain their support unless 
its tone and temper show that it seeks to get our coun- 
try out of its troubled condition. Appeals to preju- 
dice and passion will have no weight. These were 
tried at the late Republican Convention. I need not 
say with what cold indiiference they have been received 
by the public. The quiet, watchful citizens who 
seek for the protection of a wise administration of gov- 
ernment, now turn their eyes upon us. We must look 
to it that we take no position which will not bear the 
closest scrutiny. 

" The financial condition of our country forces it- 
self upon our attention. Among the evil results of 
our moneyed and tax policy, the most hurtful is the 
jealousies it has made between the sections of our coun- 



208 LIFE OF nOKATIO SEYMOUR. 

try. It has divided our Union into debtor and cred- 
itor States. It builds up favored interests and crushea 
out the industry of other classes. It taxes toil and lets 
some forms of wealth go free from the cost of the Gov- 
ernment. It gives to labor and business a debased 
money and to the untaxed bond-holder sterling coin. 
These curses upon honest industry have grown up like 
ill weeds among the sacred interests of contracts, 
trusts, and the fruits of labor, until we are troubled 
how to root out the tares sown by evil spirits, without 
killing the crops planted and tilled by honest industry. 
Lest it should be felt that what I have to say on this 
point springs from any views about the candidates or 
action of the National Convention, I will go back to 
the first years of the civil war, when the Democratic 
Party of New York took its position upon the finan- 
cial policy of Government. In the elections of 1862 
it was discussed before our people. We then pointed 
out the great evils which now trouble us as the sure 
results of the errors of those who were shaping our 
moneyed system. To show clearly how we then tried 
to avoid these dangers, let me read some passages from 
the messao-es of a Democratic Governor to the Leojis- 
lature, in January, 1863. In his position he spoke, 
after a general consultation, for the great party which 
had just placed him in the Executive chair. Positions 
taken many years ago could have no reference to the 
personal wishes or purposes of this day. I will speak 
of the questions which now agitate our country in the 
light of the warning we then uttered. In the Con- 
vention of 1862, the nominee of the Democratic Party 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 209 

of the State of NeAV York, for the office of Governor, 
used the words : 

' The vast debt growing out of the war will give 
rise to new and angry discussions. It will be held 
almost exclusively in a few Atlantic States. Look 
upon the map of the Union, and see how small is the 
territory in which it will be owned. We are to be 
divided into creditor and debtor States, and the last 
will have a vast preponderance of power and strength. 
Unfortunately, there is no taxation upon this national 
debt, and its share is thrown oS upon other property. 
It is held where many of the Government contracts 
have been executed, and where, in some instances, gross 
frauds have been practised. It is held largely where 
the constitution gives a disproportional share of polit- 
ical power.' 

"In his message to the Legislature, in 1863, the 
Democratic Governor, speaking of the public credit, 
foreshadowed our dishonored condition at the time in 
these words : 

' Extravagance and corruption are violations of the 
faith pledged to the public creditors. The money 
loaned to the National Treasury was not brought for- 
ward at a time of peace, but in a time of doubt and 
danger. These claims are held by the rich and poor. 
The amount held by corporations represents the inter- 
ests of women and children, the a^-ed and infirm. The 
right of our soldiers to demand integrity is of the 
most sacred character. A fearful crime will be done 
by those who suffer national bankruptcy to turn into 
dust and ashes the pensioners' bounties thus gained at 
14 



210 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the cost of blood and health and exposure. It is 
worse that a government should be overturned by cor- 
ruption than by violence. A virtuous people will re- 
gain their rights if torn from them, but there is no 
hope for those who suffer corruption to sop and rot 
away the fabric of their freedom.' 

"These are the positions we took years ago in the 
darkest hour of the war ; these are the positions we 
hold now, and they cover every question of public and 
party agitation. To show the anxiety we felt to avoid 
all sectional controversies, and our sense of the value 
of intercourse with the Western States, I will quote 
from the message of the same Democratic Governor 
in 1864 : 

'A deep interest is felt with regard to our com- 
merce vfith the Western States. Its growing value 
and the loss of our trade with the Southern States 
makes us dependent for commercial prosperity upon 
that section of our country which sustains our domes- 
tic and foreign commerce, and which adds so largely to 
the imports and business prosperity of the City of New 
York. This State will be untrue to itself if it fails to 
control this great source of wealth by a vigorous and 
generous polic}^ Eather than suffer its diversion into 
other channels, we should strike off all tolls upon Wes- 
tern produce. New York should exhibit that degree 
of interest in all measures designed to benefit the West 
which will show our purpose to keep up the most 
intimate commercial relationship with that portion of 
•our Union.'' 

" These words are quoted — not because the words 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 211 

of any one man are of consequence, but to show the 
record of the great party which inspired them. The 
Democratic Party saw the evil in the beginning ; they 
are the party to cure it. They have always kept our 
public finances out of confusion, when in power. 
Years ago we pointed out the wrong done to the West 
by making them send nearly twice as many soldiers to 
the w^ar from each Congressional war district as were 
demanded from Vermont or Massachusetts, while the 
currency given to them under the banking system was 
not one quarter as gTcat, although the Western States 
needed currency the most. The act authorizing the 
banks of New York to organize under a general Bank- 
ing law was not signed, because the currency was un- 
justly divided, and because the system made a useless 
tax upon the people of $18,000,000 in gold each year. 
Thus we tried at an early day to save our country from 
sectional questions. In vain we warned the East and 
West against an unwise policy. The East and West 
upheld the policy of the Administration, and we have 
now to deal with the results. What are some of them ? 
All of the States are heavih' taxed, but some of them 
get back as much, some more than they pay out, while 
others get but little. In the case of the heaviest item 
of expense — the military and naval system — the West- 
ern States get nothing back except the cost of Indian 
war, while large sums are spent at the South. The next 
heaviest item is the interest on the debt. The West 
get but a small sum back ; most of it is paid to the 
North Atlantic States. The indirect taxes, tariffs, are 
still more hurtful to the West, as they arc practically 



212 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

premiums given to Eastern manufacturers. The di\ds- 
ion of the favors of Government in distributing bank- 
ing currency is startling in its injustice. But the most 
offensive distinction is that of having two kinds of 
currency. Good money for the bondholder, and bad 
money for the laborer, the pensioner and the business 
man. Every paper dollar now put out is a Govern- 
ment falsehood, for it claims to be worth more than its 
real value, and it goes about the countr}^ defrauding 
the laborer, the pensioner, the mechanic and the far- 
mer. An indignant chief of one of the tribes from 
whom we bought land at an early day by a pledge of 
moneyed annuity, said the Government was a cheat. 
It got land from the Indians by promising them so 
many dollars each year, that now it paid them in 
money which was a lie, which said on its face it was a 
dollar when it was but little more than a half dollar. 
The red man told the simple truth. Of all the devices 
to cheat honest labor, to paralyze industry, to degrade 
public morals and to turn business pursuits into reck- 
less gambling, none has been so hurtful as a shifting 
standard of value, a debased and Ivins; currencv. I 
have not thus set forth the condition of our country 
for the purpose of indulging in invectives against the 
party in power, but for another object. Many Re- 
publicans who admit the wrong doing of their leaders 
say that we have no plans for the relief of our coun- 
try, that pointing out wrongs is of no use imless we 
can point out remedies. This we propose to do, and 
we probe the ulcers to the quick because we mean to 
meet the case and cure the malady. Among other 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 213 

things wliicli have caused anxiety in the disordered 
state of our Union, is the fact that our Government 
bonds are mainly held in one section of our country. 
The labor of the West puts its earnings in a large 
degree into lands, which are tax-burdened. The labor 
of the East puts its earnings into savings banks, life 
insurance, or in other forms of moneyed investment. 
Thus they are deeply interested in Government bonds. 
The amount in savings banks in this State alone is 
$140,000,000. This shows that there must be at least 
$300,000,000 of money thus deposited in all the States. 
The average of the deposits in 1867 in the State of 
New York was $270. The number of depositors in 
the State of New York is about five hundred thousand 
(487,479,) and in the City they number more than one 
third of the population. This will make the number 
of depositors in the Union more than 1,800,000. In 
the State of Connecticut, in 1865, one quarter of its 
population had deposits in the savings banks. It is 
now usual for men of small property to insure their 
lives. The number of policies given out by all the life 
insurance companies are about four hundred and fifty 
thousand, and the amount of insurance about one 
thousand and two hundred and fifty millions. The 
money invested is held as a sacred trust, as it is a fund 
laid aside for their families when the insurers die. All 
of the funds of savinjxs banks and the insurance com- 
panics are not put in Government bonds, but they 
hold an amount which would cripple or ruin them if 
the bonds are not paid, or if they are paid in debased 
paper. If we add the trusts for widows and orphans 



214 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

we find 2.500,000 persons are interested in Govern 
ment bonds, Avho are not capitalists, and who are com- 
pulsory owners, at present prices, under the operations 
of our laws. There is a fear that this state of thino-s 
will make a clashing of interests between the labor of 
the East and the labor of the West. It is clear that 
our opponents hope that it will hinder us from going 
into the contest with compact ranks and with one bat- 
tle-cry. 

However alarming this aspect may be, I am sure 
there is a policy to be marked out which will harmo- 
nize all jarring interests. It can be shown that the 
dangers sjDring from an unwise conduct of public af- 
fairs. They have come up like fogs at night from foul 
fens ; they rise from un-\\diolesome darkened counsels, 
and will fade away before the light and life of a clear 
and honest policy. Is it true that the laborer, the pen- 
sioner, the tax-payers and the bondholders have con- 
flictino; interests which will hinder them from actinjx 
together in upholding constitutional right ? Why are 
the tax-payers laboring under a debt which bears an 
interest of six per cent., Avhile other Governments can 
borrow money at three per cent., and at this low in- 
terest their bonds sell for better prices than ours? 
Why is the laborer, the farmer, the mechanic and the 
pensioner paid in bad money, so that they get one- 
quarter less than they are entitled to on every paper 
dollar paid to them ? Why is the bondholder wronged 
by the tainted credit of the Government, so that he 
cannot sell his bond for as much bj' one-third as the 
citizen of Great Britain gets for the bond of his Gov- 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE, 215 

ernment, which bears a lower interest ; and why is his 
claim made odious in the eyes of the people by the 
fact that his interest is paid in specie, while they are 
compelled to take debased paper ? It is clear to every 
thoughtful man that public safety and honor will not 
admit of our having two kinds of currency for any 
length of time. We must have a uniform currency for 
all classes. There is but one question to be settled. 
Shall our currenc}' be uniformly good or uniformly bad ? 
Are we to force the bondholder to take bad money ? 
Are we to have an honest standard of value for all, or 
is industry, enterprise and morality to be perplexed 
and disordered by a shifting and dishonest standard ? 
If it can be shown that all these evils under which we 
labor, spring from a common source, then it is clear 
that all classes should join in a common effort to root 
out the policy which sheds such wide-spread curses. 
There are two ways of making our paper money as 
good as coin. One is to contract its volume by calling 
in the leo-al tenders. This will make them scarce and 
will force a specie standard, but it will carry ruin and 
bankruptcy into every part of our country. It will 
bear do^^Tl the prices of property and of labor. It is a 
policy which cannot be carried through, for the country 
will not consent to it. There is another way of lifting 
up our greenbacks to par which will not harm an}^, but 
will help all, which will bring back confidence, will re- 
vive business and enterprise, will lighten taxation, will 
give to labor honest money and will do justice to the 
public creditor. And that way is to give to all the 
world full faith in the honor and wisdom of the Ameri- 



216 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

can Government. Our paper money is not its par in 
coin, because the national credit is dishonored. How 
can the notes of our Government, which pay no in- 
terest, be worth their face in gold or silver, when the 
bonds of Government, which pay six per cent, interest, 
are worth only eighty cents on the dollar ? You can- 
not make the notes put out by banks worth more than 
the bonds which secure these notes. It is a sad thing 
to say that our credit is dishonest in the markets of 
the world, but it is true, and it must be said, if we are 
to find a remedy. It is humiliating to find that when 
Great Britain borrows $1,000 for twenty years, it pays 
the lender but $1,700, when, if we make the same 
loan, we have to pay $2,700 to the lender. If we wish 
to help the tax-payer — if we wish to get at the cause 
of debased currency in the hands of the laborer — we 
must first find out why our credit is dishonored ; for 
it is a tainted credit that sinks alike the value of bonds, 
of greenbacks and bank notes. Make the credit of the 
United States as good as that of Great Britain, or of a 
merchant in good standing, or of a mortgage on a farm, 
and our troubles would disappear. If we make our 
paper money good by a harsh system of contraction, 
we shall cripple the energies of the country and make 
bankruptcy and ruin. If, on the other hand, we de- 
base the currency by unwise issues, we shall equally 
perplex business and destroy sober industry, and make 
all prices mere matters of gambling tricks and chances. 
This will end as it did in the Southern Confederacy. 
At the outset the citizens of Bichmond went to market 
with their monev in their vest pockets and brought 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 217 

back their dinners in their baskets, in the end they took 
their money in their baskets and took home their dinners 
in their vest pockets. Make our money good by an 
honest and wise course, and when this is done it will 
be worth twenty-five per cent, more than it is now, 
which will be equal to an increase of one-quarter in the 
amount of currency. Business will be strengthened, 
industry will be encouraged, prices will be regular, and 
men will then dare to go on with useful enterprises. 
"VVe find right here the cause of our troubles, perplexi- 
ties and national disgrace. Our credit is tainted. But 
for that we could borrow money as Britain does, at 
three per cent., and cut down taxation. But for that 
our paper money would be good, and gold and silver 
would glitter in the hands of labor. But for that fact 
there would be no question how the bonds are to be 
paid, and we never should have heard of the green- 
back issue. But for the national discredit business 
men would not be perplexed, and the disquiet and 
fears which now disturb the public mind would not 
exist. Now if this dishonor cannot be helped, we must 
bear it in the best way we can, and we must get on with 
the sectional and social and political troubles growing 
out of it until time and events shall bring some cure. 
But if it can be shown to be the work of those in power, 
then all sections, all classes and all interests should 
unite and tarn them out. Fortunately, we have offi- 
cial statements to guide us in our inquiries. We take 
the showing of the very portion under impeachment to 
show where the guilt lies. 

" To show the waste of those in power let us com- 



218 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

pare the cost of Government during the four years of 
peace before 1861, and the four years of peace follow- 
ing the 1st of July, 18 Go. For the fiscal year ending 
July 1st, 1869, I Avill take the estimate just made by 
the Committee of Ways and Means. Bear in mind 
that this is the best promise the Republicans can make 
on the eve of a Presidential election. It will prove to 
be many millions short of what they will spend, but we 
will give them the benefit of their own statements. 
After the close of the war, and up to the 1st of July, 
1865, the War Department spent $165,000,000— which 
is §75,000,000 more than was spent by the same de- 
partment in the four years of Mr. Polk's administration, 
and which included the cost of the Mexican war. It 
took nearly twice as much to stop a war under Ke- 
publican policy as it did to carry on a war under the 
Democratic management. But I will not take this 
$165,000,000 into account. Let us close the war. 
Since July 1st, 1865, about three months after the 
surrender of Lee, up to July 1st, 1868, the cost of 
Government will be, by official reports and estimates, 
$820,390,208. Up to July 1st, 1869, by the estimate 
of the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, 
it will be $197,973,366, making the cost of Govern- 
ment for four years $1,018,363,574. This does not in- 
clude one cent paid or to be paid for interest or prin- 
cipal of the debt. The cost of Government during the 
four years before the war (leaving out interest on debt) 
was $256,226,414. This shows that the Republicans 
have spent, in a time of peace, four dollars where the 
Democrats spent one. But the cost of Government 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 219 

grows greater, and we will allow them to spend two 
dollars where the Democrats spent one. This will 
make $512,452,828. But they spent $505,910,046 
beyond this. What did they do mth the money? 
During the four years of Mr. Polk's term, Avhich in- 
cluded the Mexican war, the cost of the War Depart- 
ment Avas only $90,540,788 21. We find that the cost 
of the War Department, taking their own statements 
and estimates, will be in those four years of peace 
$541,613,619. And this follows an expenditure of 
more than $3,000,000,000 during the war. The cost 
of the Navy Department in the four years ending July 
1st, 1869, will be, by Republican statements and esti- 
mates, $117,471,802; and this follows an expenditure 
of $314,186,742 during the war. In the four years 
before the war the navy cost only $62,910,534. We 
then stood in the front rank of commercial Powers. 
Our ships were on every sea and wx*re to be found in 
every port. American shipping is now by our tariff 
policy swept from the ocean, but the cost of the navy 
is nearly doubled. The year ending July 1, 1868, is 
the third year of peace. But the War Department 
cost $128,858,494, which is more than its cost during 
the four years of Mr. Polk's term, which covered the 
expenses of the Mexican war. Not only does one year 
of peace cost more than four years of war then did, but 
the third year of peace costs more than the second, for 
in the year ending July 1, 1867, the War Department 
spent only $95,224,415. In these statements we have 
given the Pepublicans the full benefit of their promises 
for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1869, but we should 



220 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

like to ask a few questions. If $38,081,013 is enough 
for the War Department in that year, why and how 
did you spend $123,858,490 this year? If $17,500,- 
000 is enough for the navy in 1869, why did you spend 
upon it $43,324,111 in 1866, and $31,024,011 in 1867 ? 
You have not cut down the numbers of the army. 
Did you waste money this year, or are your statements 
for next year untrue ? We ask Republicans to read 
the estimates for the future, for they show the profligacy 
of the past. If $500,000,000 of the money paid for 
military, naval, and other expenses had been used to 
pay the debt, to-day the credit of the United States 
would have been as good as that of Great Britain. 
The rapid payment, and the proof it w^ould have given 
of good faith, would have carried the national credit 
to the highest point. The bonds would be worth much 
more in the hands of holders, and yet the taxpayer 
would seem better off, for the cost of Government would 
be cut down as its credit rose. We could i)ut out new 
bonds bearing less interest, which would not have the 
odious exemption from taxation. Our debt would have 
been less, our interest lower, and our taxes reduced. 
The hours of labor could be shortened. What now 
lengthens the time of toil ? If we were free from any 
form of taxation, direct or indirect, six hours of work 
would earn as much as ten do now. One hour more 
of work ought to meet a laborer s share, of the cost of 
government, another hour should pay his share of the 
national debt. He now Avorks two hours more each 
day than he ought to pay for the military and negro 
policy of Congress and its corrupt schemes. It has just 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 221 

passed a law that eight hours make a day's laljor, while 
it piles up a load of taxation which forces the laborer 
to work ten more or starve. But the wise and honest 
use of this $500,000,000 would not have stopped here. 
When it carried our bonds to the level of specie value, 
it would have carried up our currency to the value of 
specie. The plan of making our currency as good as 
gold by contracting its volume carries with it great dis- 
tress and suffering. But if we lift up its value, by 
getting rid of the taint upon the national credit, it 
harms no one, it blesses all. Now our legal tender and 
bank currency must be debased while our national 
bonds stand discredited. They must rise and fall to- 
gether. They are all based upon the national credit. 
Bank notes cannot be worth more than the bonds which 
secure them. If, then, the $500,000,000 had been duly 
and honestly used to pay our debt, to-day the tax-payers 
would have been relieved, the mechanic, laborer and 
pensioner would be paid in coin, or money good as coin, 
and would not be cheated out of one-quarter of their 
dues by false dollars. The holders of bonds in savings 
banks or life insurance would be better off, as their se- 
curities would be safer and worth more. There would 
be no question how they should be paid, for this ques- 
tion grows out of the follies of those in powder, and will 
disappear when they disappear from the places they 
now hold. The bondholder would no longer stand in an 
odious light. He would not be charged with the taxa- 
tion which has been used to hurt, not to help, his claim. 
If a wise, an honest use of the j^ublic money would have 
done this good in the past, it will do it in the future. 



222 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

" But the Republican party, at Chicago, pledged 
itself, by its nominations and resolutions, to keep up 
its negro policy. It is impossible to give untutored 
Africans at the South uncontrolled poAver over the 
government, the property, and laws of the people of 
ten States, by excluding white votes, without military 
despotism. You cannot give to three millions of 
neo-roes more Senators than are allowed to fifteen mil- 
lions of white men living in New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky, 
Missouri, and Michigan, without keeping up great 
standing armies. Without a general amnesty, and 
the restoration of the suffrage to all the whites in ^he 
South, a great standing army must be a permanent 
institution. In order to curse the South with military 
despotism, negro rule, and disorganized labor and in- 
dustry, they cursed the farmers of the North with 
taxation, the mechanics with more hours of toil, the 
laborers and pensioners with debased paper, the mer- 
chant with a shifting standard, and the public creditor 
with a dishonored and tainted national faith. Are 
these classes to turn and see how each can push the 
burdens upon each other, or are they to make common 
cause and do away Avith the curses of a bad Govern- 
ment ? If the Republican policy prevails, this strug- 
gle must begin. Either the laborer or the capitalist 
must go down. Both cannot live under it, and men 
must choose between. If, on the other hand, the pol- 
ic}^ of selfish ambition and of sectional hate is put 
down, our country will start upon a new course of 
prosperity, and all classes will reap in common the 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 223 

fruits of good Government. The next election will 
turn upon this question — can the Congressional party 
succeed in their efforts to excite and array the indus- 
trial and monied interests against each other, or will 
these unite and turn out the authors of the mischief 
under which they are all suffering ? The only hope of 
our opponents is discord where there should be har- 
mony and concert of action. In our State, at the last 
election, we appealed to all classes to help us save 
New York from misgovernment ; and all came up to 
the rescue, and we made a change of 70,000. Let us 
again appeal to all classes of interests throughout the 
Union ; let us go before the people with these facts, 
and we will make a change which will sweep the 
WTong-doers from their places. We say to the bond- 
holders and to the laborer who has put his money 
into savings bank: "We do not wish to harm you; 
we do not seek to give you bad money, but to get a 
good currency for all. It will not help us to break 
down the credit of your bonds — it hurts us ; it keeps 
up our taxes by making us pay high interest ; but we 
ask you to help save us, as tax-payers, from the cost 
of the negro and military policy at the South. It is 
hard for us to pay you if you let men in power take 
the money we give in taxes to reduce your claims and 
use it to uphold military despotism. We see clearly 
that a state of affairs which will compel you to take a 
debased currency will force every laborer, farmer, 
mechanic, and creditor, to take a debased currency as 
well. If your claims were all wiped out to-morrow by 
an issue of greenbacks, it would not relieve the fear 



224 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of patriots ; labor would still be cheated by false dol- 
lars, our standard of value would still be shifting. 
Taxation would be kept up by the reconstruction pol- 
icy ; for it is despotism more than debt that makes 
taxation so heavy. Nothing would be settled. The 
Judiciary would still be trampled under foot ; the Ex- 
ecutive would still be manacled so that it could not 
punish crime nor protect innocence. But strike down 
the Congressional policy and all will be set right. Since 
the war closed in 1865, the Government has spent 
for its expenses, in addition to payments on principal 
or interest of the public debt, the sum of more than 
$1,000,000,000. Of this sum there has been spent 
nearly $800,000,000 on the army and navy, and for 
military purposes. This is nearly one-third of the 
national debt. This was spent in the time of peace. 
The cost of our navy before the war was about 
$13,000,000 each year. Since the war, when our 
shipping has been swept from the ocean by taxation, 
the annual average cost has been $30,000,000, al- 
though we have now no carrying trade to protect. 
While money is thus wasted without scruple upon the 
army and navy, if any aid is sought to lessen the cost 
of transportation for the farmers of the West or to 
cheapen food for the laborers of the East, we are at 
once treated with Congressional speeches upon the 
virtues of economy. If from this amount there had 
been saved and paid upon the debt the sum of 
$500,000,000, how changed would our condition 
have been. With this payment, which would have 
cut down the debt to about $2,000,000,000, our 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 225 

credit would at least have been as good as that of 
.Great Britain. It is because we did not thus apply 
this money to this purpose, but spent it upon the 
negro policy, the military despotism, and other 
abuses of Government, that our credit is so low. The 
world saw ^ve were violating our faith with the public 
creditors and the tax-payers alike, when the money 
was used for the partisan purpose of keeping the 
South out of the Union until sham governments 
could be manufactured by military violence and Con- 
gressional action. The world not only saw the mon- 
strous diversion of the money, wrung from the peo- 
ple by taxation, but it also saw that it made, through 
a long series of years, still greater annual expenses 
unavoidable. When the entire control of the Southern 
States is given over, unchecked by the intelligence of 
the white race, to untutored negroes, whom the people 
of the North have said were unfit to be voters, when 
the unfortunate Africans, drunk with unusual power 
and goaded on by bad and designing men, shall make 
life and property unsafe, and shall shock and disgust 
the world with outrages, we shall be forced to raise 
and pay still greater armies. Up to this time the South 
has had at least an intelligent tyranny in military 
officers. Every man who is not blinded by hate or 
bigotry looks forward with horror to the condition of 
the South under negro domination. The bad faith to 
the public creditor and tax-payer in thus unsettling 
our Union, of keeping the South in a condition where 
it cannot help the national prosperity, but is made a 
heavy load upon the country, is the real cause of our 
15 



226 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

debased credit. The tax-payer was told the burdens 
put upon him were to pay the debt, but the money 
was not used in good faith to him, for the debt still 
stands ; nor in good* faith to the creditor, for he was 
not paid what he should have been ; but it was used 
in a way which harmed both, in a way that tainted 
the nation's credit, kept up taxation by keeping up the 
rate of interest, while it sunk the value of the bonds, 
and with them carried down the paper currency, and 
thus wronged the laborer and pensioner. But for the 
policy of bad faith, of partisan purposes, mad folly, 
we could to-day borrow money as cheaply as Great 
Britain ; but we have cursed the tax-payers, the laborer, 
the pensioner, the public creditor, for the sake of curs- 
ing the people of the South with military despotism 
and negro domination. Every one must see, if we 
paid off one-fifth of our debt, had kept down the cost 
of. Government, had given peace to our Union, had 
built up industry and good order in the South, not one 
of the evils which now afflict us could have existed. 
Our whole condition would have been changed. We 
demand that our currency shall be made as good as 
gold, not by contracting the amount, but by contract- 
ing the expenses of Government. We are against 
measures which will pull down business credit, and 
call for those which shall lift up the national credit. 
When we stop the waste which forces us to pay a 
usury of ten per cent, and take a course which will 
enable us to borrow money uj^oii the rates paid by 
other nations, we shall add to the dignity and power 
of our Union. When we give value to our bonds 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 227 

by using the money drawn by taxation to tlie payment 
of our debt, and not to the military and negro scheme, 
we shall relieve the tax-payer, the bill-holder, and 
give strength and value to the claims of the public 
creditor. We have seen the mischief wrought out by 
the policy of the past three years. It will be as hurt- 
ful in the future as it has been in the past. Yet the 
Kepublican Party has approved it and is pledged to it. 
We have shown how the policy of using our money to 
pay our debts would have helped us in the past. It 
will do the same for us in the future. To that policy 
we are pledged. There is not one man in our party in 
this broad land who doubts upon this point. It was 
never charged that a single Democrat in these United 
States ever favored the military and negro policy upon 
which the credit of the country has wrecked. Our 
remedy is to use the public money to pay the public 
debt. It is a simple, brief, but a certain remedy for 
our national malady. Our ailment is debt, aggravated 
by despotism. In another way the Republicans' do a 
constant wrong to the bondholders. In answer to 
complaints of heavy taxation, they say it cannot be 
helped •svith our heavy debt, and thus throw the whole 
odium on the debt. Why do they not tell the truth, 
and say one-third of our taxation is made by our debt ? 
Then they will be asked, what makes the two-thirds ? 
This question they do not want to have asked, and they 
do not want to answer. When they do answer, the 
eyes of all classes with be opened. They will be forced 
to say that last year they spent, by reports of Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means, $379,178,060 83, and this 



228 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

in the third }'ear of peace. Well, say our well-mean- 
ing Republican friends, we suppose the interest of the 
debt took most of it. Oh, no ; that took $149,418,- 
383 87, not quite as much as was spent by the War 
and Navy Departments, which was $149,472,165 35, 
and besides this we spent $80,292,513 14 for other 
things. Why, that is $20,000,000 more than the 
Democrats spent for army and navy and all expenses of 
Government put together. But why do you spend 
$25,613,673 53 on the navy, when it formerly cost 
$12,000,000 annually? Has American shipping grown 
so much that we have to keep up vast navies to pro- 
tect it? Oh, no; our tariflfs have swept away Ameri- 
can ships from the ocean ; we have lost the carrying 
trade ; the British have got that. Then why don't 
you give the builders of merchant ships the money 
spent on the navy, by way of drawback on duties ? 
Would that start work at our ship-yards ? Oh, yes, 
half the cost would do it. Then, why is it not done? 
We did not think of it ; really, we have been so bus}- with 
the impeachment and negro questions, that we forgot 
our sailors and mechanics. But we see that the War 
Department this year spent $128,858,466, when the 
year before it spent about $95,000,000. The longer 
we have peace the more the army costs. How is this ? 
Well, it costs a great deal to keep soldiers and Freed- 
men's Bureau agents, and to feed and clothe negroes at 
the South. But why do you do it ? Let the negroes 
support themselves as we do. You make the laborers at 
the North work to feed and clothe these idle Africans. 
True, but by so doing we get their votes, and they will 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 229 

send our travelling agents to Congress ; Vv^e shall get 
tu^enty Senators in this way, while a majority of the 
people of the United States living in nine States, 
have only eighteen. The people may vote as they 
please, but they cannot get the Senate, nor repeal any 
of the laws we ";ot through for our advantao;e ; we 
have managed it so that one- quarter of the people have 
more power in the Senate than the three-quarters. 
We now own the negroes of the South. Did we not 
buy them by your blood and money? We now see 
where the money goes ; we now see why the credit 
of our country is so tainted ; we now see why the 
value of our paper, money is sinking. It was only 
at twenty-one per cent, discount in 1866 ; is now at 
a discount of about twenty-nine per cent. ; we now 
see why our laborers and pensioners are cheated by 
false dollars. If the mechanic cares to know why 
he works so many hours, let him study the reports of 
the Secretary of the Treasury. It is clear why busi- 
ness is hindered and business men perplexed. We 
now know why the public creditor is harassed by our 
dishonest credit, and the tax-payer is hunted down by 
the tax-gatherer. The negro military policy of the 
Republican Party is at the bottom of all these troubles. 
We now get at the real issues between parties. The 
Republicans, by their nominations and resolutions, are 
pledged to keep up the negro and military polic}^, with 
all its cost and taxations. These will be greater here- 
after. The government of the South is to go into the 
hands of the negroes. We have said they are unlit to 
be voters at the North. The Republicans say they 



230 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

shall be governors at the South. "We are clearly op- 
posed to this policy. We have seen how much it costs 
the tax-payer, the bondholder and the laborer in the 
past three j^ars. It will be as hurtful in the future. 
We have also seen how our policy of using the money 
to pay our debts would have helped the tax-payer, the 
bondholder and the laborer in the past. It will do as 
much in the future. The whole question is brought 
down to this clear point : shall we use our money to 
pay* our debts, relieve the tax-payer, make our money 
good in the hand of the laborers or pensioner, and help 
the bondholder ? or shall we use it to keep up military 
despotism, feed idle negroes, break down the Judiciary, 
shackle the Executive and destroy all constitutional 
rights ? 

"I have said nothing in behalf of, or against the 
views of any one who is spoken of as a candidate for 
the Presidency on the Democratic side. I have only 
said what each one agrees to and is in favor of No 
man has been named who is not in favor of reducing 
expenses, and then making our paper as good as gold. 
No man has been named who is not in favor of cutting 
down military expenses. No man has been named 
who is not in favor of using the money dra-\yn from the 
tax-payers to pay the public debt. No man has been 
named who is not in favor of a general amnesty to tlie 
people of the South. No man has been named who is 
not an upholder of constitutional rights. No man has 
been named by the Democratic party whose election 
would not help the tax-payer, the pensioner, the la- 
borer, and the bondholder. On the other hand, the 



SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 231 

candidates of the Republican party are pledged to 
their past policy, which has sunk the value of our cur- 
rency more than eight per cent, in the past two years. 
The discount upon our paper money was twenty per 
cent, in April, 18G6 ; it is now about twenty-nine per 
cent. It will continue to go down under the same 
policy. As it sinks it will increase taxes, it will curse 
all labor and business, it will endanger still more the 
jDublic credit ; for the greater the premium on gold the 
harder it becomes to pay specie to the bondholder, and 
his claims become more odious. What claim have the 
Kepublicans upon our soldiers ? They take away from 
him one-quarter of his pension, by paying him in false 
money, which is worth less than seventy-five cents on 
the dollar. A wise and honest administration would 
have made it worth its face in gold. What right have 
they to call upon the mechanic and laborer ? They 
have lengthened out the hours of their toil to feed 
swarms of office-holders at the North, and to support 
armies and hordes of negroes at the South. How can 
they look the tax-payers in the face, when they have 
wrung from them so many millions upon the pretext 
that the debt compelled them to do so, while they were 
using the money thus collected to support standing 
armies and to trample upon the rights and liberties of 
the American people ? Can they, with decency, appeal 
to the bondholder, after tainting the national credit 
and sinkino; to the level of the Turks, and endano-erino- 
their securities by throwing upon them the whole 
odium of taxation ? Then let the East and West, 
the North and the South, the soldier, the sailor — in 



232 LITE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

ships or in the field — the tax-payer and the bondholder, 
by one united eiFort, drive from power the common 
enemies of liberty, honesty, honor, rights, and consti- 
tutional laws." 



CHAPTEK X. 

The National Democratic Convention of 1868 — Arrival of Delegates in 
New York — Scenes in the City — Preparations for the Convention — 
Review of tlie Prospects of Candidates — Noble Letter from Mr. 
Pendleton — Mr. Seymour Declines to be a Candidate — The " New 
York Citizen " on Mr. Seymour — Patriotism of the Pendleton Men — 
The Convention — The North and the South Renew their old Harmony 
— Organization of the Convention — Mr. Seymour Chosen its Pres- 
ident — Reception by the Convention — His Speech — A Scathing Re- 
view of Radicalism — Adoption of th& Platform — Eloquent Statement 
of the Principles of the Party — Adoption of the " Two-Thirds Rule '' 
— Nominations — The Balloting — A " Dead-Lock " — "Withdrawal of 
Mr. Pendleton — His Friends Insist upon the Nomination of Governor 
Seymour — He Declines the Honor — Scene in the Convention — Mr. 
Seymour is compelled to Submit to the "Will of the Party — Enthusi- 
asm — He is Declared the Unanimous Choice of the Convention for 
the Presidency — Nomination of General Blair for the Vice-Pres- 
idency — Statement of the Ballots for President — Final Adjournment 
of the Convention. 

The National Democratic Convention met in Tam- 
many Hall, in New York City, on the 4th of July, 
1868. For several days previous, the city had been 
filling up rapidly with the arriving delegates and their 
friends, and great enthusiasm prevailed among the 
new-comers. The most extensive preparations had 
been made for the assembling of the Convention. The 
new hall of the Tammany Society, which was just 
fresh from the builder s hands, had been fitted up and 
decorated with a taste and magnificence which excited 
the admiration of all beholders. 

Previous to the assembling of the Convention, the 



234 LITE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

friends of Mr. Seymour had repeatedly urged him to 
allow his name to be presented as a candidate for the 
nomination; but he modestly but firmly refused to 
gi*ant their request. The peaceful retirement of his 
home had more attractions for him than the Pres- 
idency, and he was determined not to abandon it un- 
less he should be called from it by some cause more 
urgent than any which then presented, itself to him. 
It being understood, therefore, that Mr. Seymour would 
not be a candidate for the nomination, the choice at 
the first seemed to lie between the Hon. George H. Pen- 
dleton, of Ohio, and General Hancock. The former, 
havino- the almost unbroken streno-th of the Western 
delegations, and many fi'iends among the Eastern to 
sustain him was undoubtedly the strongest of all the 
competitors for the prize, and it was feared by some 
that his friends would insist upon his nomination with 
a persistency which would cause serious trouble in the 
Convention. Those who entertained this feeling, how- 
ever, knew little of Mr. Pendleton, No purer or more 
unselfish patriot is to be found in the land. Ever 
prompt to assert his principles, always prepared to de- 
fend them, he is the first to sacrifice his own personal 
interests to their success. Before the Ohio delegation, 
his staunchest friends, left their homes for New York, 
he addressed the following manly and generous letter 
to one of the members : 

"Cincinnati, Thursday, June 25, 1868. 
" My dear Sir : You left my office this morning 
before I was aware of it. I seek you at home but 



LETTER rRO:\r MR. PENDLETON. 235 

you are not here. I must say what I want by 
note. 

" As soon as you get to New York, see Governor 
Seymour. You know Avell my affection and admira- 
tion for him. You know well what was my feeling 
before and after T heard from him last fall. He is to- 
day the foremost man in our party in the United States. 
His ability, cultivation, and experience put him at the 
head of our statesmen. He commands my entire con- 
fidence — I would rather trust him than myself with 
the delicate duties of the next four years. You loiow 
I am sincere. 

" Make him feel this, and that he can rely on me 
and my friends. I have a natural pride — an honest 
pride, I believe — in the good- will of my countrymen ; 
but yon, better than any one else, know that it is 
neither egotistical nor over-ruling, and that I am 
ready, anxious, to give up the nomination to any body 
who can get one single vote more than myself. 

"Express all this frankly to the Governor, but 
delicately, and let him understand my views of men 
and measures as I have frequently given them to you. 
Good-bye. God bless you ! 
" Very truty, 

" George H. Pendleton. 
'^ To Washington McLean, Esq."" 

* The New York Citizen, in an editorial pubiislied on tlie 25th of 
August, 1866, nearly two yenrs ago, thus expressed its views concerning 
Mr. Seymour, which are interesting, as confirming the opinion held by 
Mr. Pendleton and the rest of the Democratic party : 

" The time is fast approaching, if not already fully come, in which 
independent men may do justice to the character and conduct of ex-Gov- 



236 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

There was no real prospect then that the Pendleton 
men of the West would be influenced by any other 
feeling than the pure and disinterested patriotism 

ernor IToratio Seymour — to-day the most brilliant and accomplished 
member of tlie Democratic party, the best beloved son of New York, 
and with a rarer and more genial faculty for making and retaining friends 
than any other public man of our acquaintance, since the death of Judge 
Steplien A. Douglas. 

" While the recent civil war was in progress, Seymour labored under 
a cloud of Radical misrepresentation from which no efforts of himself, 
or of his loyal friends, could relieve his attitude. He had farther vision 
than most men — a larger knowledge of the past, and consequently a 
better prevision of the future. And he foresaw, that while we were 
asserting the Constitution by force of arms against the temporary rebels 
of the South, the Radical Jacobins in Congress were seeking to establish 
a permnnent tyranny which must forever nullify all rights under the 
Constitution both in the Northern and Southern States. 

" But during the hot days of the war, to question any act of the Gen- 
eral Government was to be ' disloyal ; ' and to cast a doubt upon the in- 
fallibility or perfect patriotism of Congress, was the ' unspeakable sin ' 
in political religion. When Governor Seymour denounced the conduct" 
and management of the Provost Marshal General's department, he was 
regarded as a ' traitor ; ' and for asserting and offering to prove that some 
of the subordinates in that department were perjured riilains, who were 
attempting to operate the draft with illegal severity in some of the Dem- 
ocratic districts of our city, he was held up to odium in the Radical press 
as one deserving a cell in Fort Lafayette, if not summary execution on 
the parade-ground of Governor's Island. 

" It was all in vain, therefore, for Governor Seymour to organize 
regiments, and to strain every practical power of his position for the 
support of the Union cause, while the morbid and feverish state of public 
opinion lasted. For openly daring to doubt the sincerity of the so-called 
'Union party's' professed devotion to the Union and the Constitution, 
and for this crime alone, he was condemned to suffer the major anathema 
and excommunication of the whole loyal church. But how stands this 
matter to-day ? Was he wright or wrong ? 

" Is it not now admitted, even by the most reckless partisans of the 
Radical cause, that the management of our Provost Marslial's depart- 
ment during the war, was a disgrace to our country and century ? That 



PATRIOTISM OF THE PE^^DLETON MEN. 237 

which swayed their leader, and when the delegates 
began to assemble in caucuses, previous to the open- 
ing of the Convention, it was found that there was no 



many of its subordinates — in fact nearly all--were scoundrels capable of 
every crime conceivable; and that the excessive drafts upon the Demo- 
cratic city of New York, which Judge Waterbury exposed and Governor 
Seymour resisted, were only some atrocious parts of a great plot for 
striking down all resistance to the Radical programme at the point of 
the bayonet ? Should any conservative Eepublican be disposed to ques- 
tion this fact, he is respectfully referred to the present infamous notoriety 
of Lafayette 0. Baker, whose name nearly blisters every lip that breathes 
it ; or to the report made by Congress, and echoed in the Trihujie, of the 
disclosures resulting from the difficulty between General James B. Fry 
and Congressman Eoscoe Oonklin. 

" Again : all must remember bow the agents appointed by Governor 
Seymour for collecting the votes of our soldiers in the various armies, 
were denounced by the Radical press, and finally flung into the Old Cap- 
itol prison and other bastiles of the General Government, under charges 
of making fraudulent returns. This course was pursued just prior to, 
and had its effect upon the last Presidential election ; but when that 
struggle was over, and the Radical authorities were called upon to 
substantiate their charges against Col. North and his associate agents by 
some form of trial — even one before a Military Commission packed to 
convict — do we not also remember how the Government shrank back 
from its false accusations, and was compelled to acknowledge their false- 
hood by liberating without trial, or even formal arraignment, Governor 
Seymour's agents ? 

" And lastly — at least for the present week — was Horatio Seymour 
right or wrong in denouncing the Republican party as false to tlie Con- 
stitution and not sincerely desirous for a return of the Union ? Let 
President Andrew Johnson answer this, and let all the conservative Re- 
publicans who met at Philadelphia take part in his reply. That party is 
now openly arrayed against the reconstruction of the Union, and it is on 
the eve of impeaching President Johnson for his attempt to arrest its 
illegal usurpations and exactions. It has thrown off the mask it wore 
when soliciting Democrats to fight the battle for its existence, under a 
delusion that they were fighting the battle of the country ; and it is to- 
day — as Governor Seymour always knew it to be, and pronounced it — 
the revolutionary and usurpational party of the country, endeavoring to 



238 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

doubt that the session would be marked b}^ greater 
harmony than had been known in the party for years. 
The occasion was indeed an interesting one. It 
was the first National Convention of the Democratic 

hold the Southern States as conquered provinces wherein its satraps may 
pillage at discretion ; and ready even to plunge the whole country hack 
into the seething caldron of civil war, rather than resign the illegal 
powers and profits which it seized during the busy and half delirious 
days of our recent contest. 

"For men like Horatio Seymour, the reverses of to-day are nothing 
— the future is the promised land of justice ; and that future has arrived. 
Traduced and vilified during the war, his course has been nobly vindi- 
cated by the subsequent actions of his slanderers ; and to-day he occupies 
a proud pedestal before the whole American peofde as one who was 
wisely and greatly true to the Union and the Constitution, iu the very 
darkest days we have seen and in the best sense of truth ; an asserter of 
individual liberty and the liberty of the press against the arbitrary usur- 
pations of Radical power ; a fearless and faithful guardian of the people's 
liberties and rights ; and one who could better atford to be overcome and 
vituperated in a course he knew to be right, than to accept all the lionors 
and rewards of government while acquiescing in concessions to the ille- 
gal demands of a fanatical and usurping junta. 

"While Seymour was Governor of our State, his worst enemies made 
no suggestion of corruption. His hands were pure, and he had pure 
men in his councils. For vetoing the Broadway Railroad Bill and other 
measures of like iniquity and rapacious fraud, he was defeated two years 
ago by the machinations of the friends of the bill ; but the day is fast 
approaching in which the rascals who took part in that treachery, and 
boasted of their share in its success, will call upon the rocks and moun- 
tains to cover them so that their sight may not be blasted by the glory 
of Mr. Seymour's vindication. Warm and deep in the heart of every 
honest Democrat in the State of New York, the image of Horatio Sey- 
mour has its home. He is our ablest, most faithful and most beloved 
representative. He is the man of widest grasp and highest culture in 
our party. He is the statesman who might nobly and bravely fill that 
seat which Seward's imbecility disgraces; and he, of all men we know, 
could most certainly and easily assert for our State its just ascendency in 
the great council of the nation, if he were elected next Winter to the 
seat in the United States Senate now occupied by Mr. Ira Harris." 





MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 239 

party since the close of the war — the first in which the 
Southern States had participated since 1860. Tiie 
representatives of that great Democracy of the North 
and West that had carried the war to a successful close, 
met once more as brothers in a common cause, those 
who for four years had resisted them with a valor and 
skill which no true American need feel otherwise than 
proud of The North here met the South in a spirit 
of frank and generous forgetfulness of the past and 
hopefulness for the future, and the South, saddened 
and wiser by its reverses, came forward manfully to 
renew its allegiance to the Constitution and laws of 
the Union. Both came to do what lay in their power 
to save that Constitution and those laws from the ruin 
and infamy which the fanaticism of the party in power 
sought to bring upon them, and here was laid the firm 
foundation of that mutual esteem and brotherly love 
which is once more to bind together the great conserva- 
tive elements of the two sections. 

At precisely twelve o'clock on the 4th of July, 1868, 
the Convention was called to order by the Honorable 
August Belmont, the Chairman of the Democratic 
National Committee, who, after a few well-timed re- 
marks, nominated the Honorable Henry L. Palmer of 
Wisconsin, as temporary Chairman. -Mr. Palmer ac- 
cepted the position in a brief address, after Aviiich the 
proceedings of the Convention were opened with a 
prayer by the Pev. Dr. Morgan of the Episcopal 
Church. After transacting the usual preliminary 
business, the Convention 'adjourned until Monday, 
July 6th. 



240 LIFE OF HOEATIO SEYMOUR. 

The Convention was formally organized on Mon- 
day by the election of Governor Seymour as President. 
The nomination was received with the ■svildest enthusi- 
asm and was carried by acclamation. A committee, 
consisting of Senator Bigler, of Pennsylvania, and 
Governor Hammond, of South Carolina, was then ap- 
pointed to conduct Mr. Seymour to the chair. His ap- 
pearance on the platform in company with these gentle- 
men was hailed with loud and repeated cheers. The 
whole convention rose and greeted him with the utmost 
enthusiasm, in which the ladies and the spectators in 
the galleries joined. The cheering continued for several 
minutes, and when quiet was restored Mr. Seymour 
came forward and said : 

"Gentlemen of the Conventiont; I thank you 
for the honor you have done me in making me your 
presiding officer. (Cheers.) This Convention is made 
up of a large number of delegates from all parts of our 
broad land. To a great degree we are strangers to 
each other, and view the subjects which agitate our 
country from different standpoints. We cannot, at 
once, learn each other's modes of thought, or grasp all 
the facts Avhich bear upon the minds of others. Yet 
our session must be brief, and we are forced to act 
without delay upon questions of an exciting character 
and of deep import to our country. (Applause.) To 
maintain order, to restrain all exhibitions of passion, to 
drive out of our minds all unkind suspicions is, at this 
time, a great duty. (Cheers.) I rely upon your sense 
of this duty and not upon my own ability to sustain 
me in the station in which I am placed by your kind 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 241 

partiality. Men never met under greater responsibil> 
ties than those which now weigh upon us. (Applause.) 
It is not a mere party triumph which Ave seek. We 
are trying to save our country from the dangers which 
overhang it. (Cheers.) We wish to lift off the per- 
plexities and the shackles which, in the shape of bad 
laws and of crushing taxation, now paralyze the busi- 
ness and labor of our land. (Loud cheers.) We hope, 
too, that we can give order, prosperity, and happiness 
to those sections of our country which suffer so deeply 
to-day in their homes and in all the fields of their in- 
dustry from the unhappy events of the last eight years. 
I trust that our actions will show that we are governed 
by an earnest purpose to help all classes of our citizens. 
Avoiding harsh invectives against men, we should keep 
the public mind fixed upon the questions which must 
now be met and solved. (Cheers.) Let us leave the 
past to the calm judgment of the future and confront 
the perils of the day. (Cheers.) We are forced to 
meet the assertions of the resolutions put forth by the 
late Kepublican Convention. I aver there is not in 
this body one man who has it in his heart to excite so 
much of angry feeling against the Republican pa,rty as 
must be stirred up in the minds of those who read 
these declarations in the light of recent events and in 
view of the condition of our country. (Applause.) In 
the first place, they congratulate the perplexed man of 
business, the burdened tax-payer, the laborer whose 
hours of toil are lengthened out by the growing cost of 
the necessaries of life, upon the success of that recon- 
struction policv, which has brought all these evils upon 
16 



242 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

them by the cost of its military despotism and the cor- 
ruption of its bureau agencies. In one resolution they 
' denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime.'' 
Then why did they put upon the statute books of the 
nation the laws which invite the citizens who borrow 
coin to force their creditor to take debased paper, and 
thus wrong him of a large share of his claim in viola- 
tion of the most solemn compact? (Cheers.) If re- 
pudiation is a national crime, is it no crime to invite 
all the citizens of this country thus to repudiate their 
individual promises ? (Applause.) Was it not a crime 
to force the creditors of this and other States to take 
a currency at times worth no more than 40 cents on 
the dollar in repayment for the sterling coin they 
gave to build roads and canals which yield such 
ample returns of wealth and prosperity ? (Applause.) 
Again they say, ' It is due to the laborer of 
the nation that taxation shoidd he equcdizecV Then 
why did they make taxation unequal ? Beyond the in- 
justice of making one class of citizens pay for another 
their share of the cost of schools, of roads, of the local 
laws which protect their lives and property, it was an 
unwise and hurtful thing, (Cheers.) It sunk the 
? credit of the country, as unusual terms are always hurt- 
ful to the credit of the borrower. They also declare, 
' Tlie hestpolicij to diminish our burden of debt is to ini- 
-prove our credit that capitalists ivill seek to loan us money 
at lower 7xites of interest than ive noiv pay and we must 
continue to pay so long as repudiation., j^artial or total, 
open or covert is threatened or susp>cctecV Then why 
have they used full five hundred millions of the taxes 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 243 

drawn from the people of tliis country to uphold a des- 
potic military authority and to crush out the life of the 
States, when, if this money had been used to pay our 
debts, capitalists would now seek to lend, us money at 
lower rates of interest. (Cheers.) But for this " covert 
repudiation " our national credit would not be tainted 
in the markets of the world. Again, they declare, ' Of 
all who were faithful in the trials of the late ^svar, there 
were none entitled to more especial honor than the 
brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships 
of campaign and cruise, and imperiled their lives in the 
service of the country ; the bounties and pensions pro- 
vided by the laws for these brave defenders of the 
nation are obligations never to be foro-otten ; the 
Avidows and orphans of the gallant dead are the wards 
of the people — a sacred legacy bequeathed to the 
nation's protecting care.' How have these sacred 
duties been performed ; they pay to the maimed man, 
to the widow, or the orphan, a currency which they 
have sunk one-quarter below its rightful value by their 
policy of hate, of waste, and of military despotism. The 
pittances paid to the wounded soldiers is pinched down 
twenty-five per cent, below the value of that coin 
wdiich he had a right to expect. (Loud cheering.) 
Is there no covert repudiation in, this? (Applause.) 
Again they say, ''Foreign immigration^ ivhich has 
added so much to the ivealth^ development, and resources 
and increase of p>otver to this RepvMic, the asylum of 
the oppressed of all nations, should he fostered and en- 
couraged hy a liberal and just policy.'' Is this foreign 
immigration fostered by policy which, in cruel mockery 



244 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of laws just passed declaring eight hours to be a legal 
day's labor, by the cost of government and of swarms 
of officials, so swells the cost of living that men must 
toil on to meet the exactions'? (Cheers.) The time 
was when we could not only invite the European to 
share with us the material blessings of our great coun- 
try, but more than that, we could tell those who fled 
from oppression that we lived under a government of 
laws administered by the Judiciary, which kept the 
bayonet and the sword in due subordination. (Cheers.) 
We could point to a written constitution which not 
only marked out the powers of government, but with 
anxious care secured to the humblest men the rights of 
property, of person and of conscience. Is immigra- 
tion encouraged by trampling that Constitution in the 
dust ; treating it with contempt ; shackling the Judi- 
ciary ; insulting the Executive, and giving all the 
world to understand that the great guarantees of polit- 
ical and social rights are destroyed ? (Great applause.) 
But the crowning indictment ao-ainst the follies and 
crimes of those in power is in these words : ' That 
we recognize the great principles laid down in the 
immortal Declaration of Independence as the true foun- 
dation of democratic government, and we hail with 
gladness every effort towards making these principles 
a living reality on every inch of American soil.' If 
within the limits of ten States of this Union an Amer- 
ican citizen, stung by a sense of his wrongs, should 
publicly and truthfully denounce the men in power be- 
cause, in the very language of this Declaration of In- 
dependence, ' They liave erected a multitude of new offi- 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 245 

ces and sent forth sivarms of officers to harass our 
people and eat out their substance^'' he would in all 
human probability be dragged to a prison. Or if, in 
the indio-nant lano-uajxe of our fathers, he should ex- 
claim, ' They have affected to render the military inde- 
pendent of and' superior to the civil poiver, they have 
abolished the free system of English laws, and estab- 
lished herein an arbitrary government ;'' for the of- 
fence of asserting these principles he would be tried 
and punished by a military tribunal. (Great cheering.) 
Having declared that the principles of the Declaration 
of Independence should be made a ' living reality on 
every inch of American soil^ they put in nomination a 
military chieftain who stands at the head of that sys- 
tem of despotisms that crushes beneath its feet the 
greatest principles of the Declaration of Independence. 
(Cheers.) To-day, in some States, it is held by mili- 
tary orders to be a crime to speak out the indignation 
and contempt which burn within the bosoms of patriot- 
ic men. If to-morrow a military order should be put 
forth in that State where the ashes of Washino-ton are 

CI 

entombed, that it should be an offence to declare that 
the military should ever be subordinate to the civil 
authority — to speak out the sentiment that it was a 
disgrace to our country to let the hordes of officials eat 
up the substance of the people — he who uttered these 
words could be dragged to prison from the very grave 
where lie the remains of the author of the Declaration 
of Independence — (loud cheers) — from this outrage there 
could be no appeal to the courts ; and the Republican 
candidate for the Presidency has accepted a position 



246 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

which makes the rights and liberties of a large share 
of our people dependent upon his ^^^ll. (Applause.) 
In view of these things, can there be one man in this 
Convention who can let a personal ambition, a passion, 
a prejudice, turn him aside one hair s breadth in his 
efforts to wipe out the wrongs and outrages which dis- 
grace our country ? (Cheers.) Can there be one man 
here whose heart is so dead to all that is great and 
noble in patriotism that he will not gladly sacrifice all 
other things for the sake of his country, its liberties, 
and its greatness? Can we suffer any prejudices, 
growing out of past differences of opinion, to hinder 
us from unitinof now with all who will act with us to 
save our country? (Cheers.) We meet to-da}^ to see 
what measures can be taken to arrest the dangers 
which threaten our country, and to retrieve it from 
the evils and burdens resultmg from bad government 
and unwise counsels. I thank God that the strife of 
arms has ceased, and that once more in the great Con- 
ventions of our party we can call through the whole 
roll of States and find men to answer for each. (Tre- 
mendous and continued cheering.) Time and events 
in their great cycles have brought us to this spot to 
renew and invigorate that Constitutional Government 
which nearly eighty years ago was inaugurated in this 
city. (Loud cheers.) It was here that George Wash- 
ington, the first President, swore to "preserve, protect, 
and defend " the Constitution of these United States. 
(Cheers.) And here, this day, we as solemnly pledge 
ourselves to uphold the rights and liberties of the 
American people. Then, as now, a great war which 



1 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 247 

has desolated our land had ceased. Then, as now, 
there was in every patriotic breast a longing for the 
blessings of a good government, for the protection of 
laws, and for sentiments of fraternal regard and af- 
fection among the inhabitants of all the States of this 
Union. When our Government, in 1780, was inau- 
gurated in this city, there were glad processions of 
men, and those manifestations of great joy which a 
people show when they feel that an event has hap- 
pened which is to give lasting blessing to the land. 
(Cheers.) To-day in this same spirit this vast assem- 
blage meets, and the streets are thronged with men 
who have come from the utmost borders of our con- 
tinent. They are filled with the hope that we are 
about, by our actions and our policy, to bring back the 
blessings of good government. It is among the hap- 
piest omens which inspirit us now that those who 
fought bravely in our late civil war are foremost in 
their demands that there shall be peace in our land. 
The passions of hate and malice may linger in meaner 
breasts, but we find ourselves upheld in our generous 
purposes by those who showed true courage and man- 
hood on the field of battle. (Cheers.) In the spirit, 
then, of George Washington and of the patriots of 
the revolution, let us take the steps to reinaugurate 
our Government, to start it once again on its course 
to greatness and prosperity. (Loud cheers.) May 
Almighty God give us the wisdom to carry out our 
purposes, to give to every State of our Union the 
blessings of peace, good order, and fraternal afi'ec- 
tion." 



248 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

Mr. Seymour closed amid long-continued and tre- 
mendous cheering. 

The Convention then proceeded to transact its bu- 
siness. A number of resolutions were adopted, and it 
was resolved that no balloting for a candidate for the 
Presidency or Vice-Presidency should be had until a 
platform was adopted. 

The Committee on Resolutions were busily engaged 
during the day in preparing the platform, and did not 
make their report until Tuesday morning, when the 
platform, as reported by them, through their Chairman 
Mr. Murphy, was unanimously adopted. It is as fol- 
lows : 

" The Democratic Party in National Convention 
assembled, reposing its trust in the intelligence, pa- 
triotism, and discriminating justice of the people, stand- 
ing upon the Constitution as the foundation and limita- 
tion of the powers of the Government, and the 
guarantee of the liberties of the citizen ; and recogniz- 
ing the questions of slavery and secession as having 
been settled for all time to come — (tremendous cheer- 
ing) — ^by the war or the voluntary action of the South- 
ern States in Constitutional Convention assembled, 
and never to be renewed or re-agitated, do with the re- 
turn of peace demand : 

" First — Immediate restoration of all the States to 
their rights in the Union under the Constitution, and 
of civil government to the American peoj^tle. (Cheers.) 

'•''Second — Amnesty for all past political offences, 
and the rc2;ulation of the elective franchise in the 
States by their citizens. (Cheers.) 



THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 249 

^^Third — Payment of the public debt of the United 
States as rapidly as practicable ; all moneys drawn 
from the people by taxation, except so much as is re- 
quisite for the necessities of the Government, econom- 
ically administered, being honestly applied to such 
payment ; and where the obligations of the Govern- 
ment do not expressly state upon their face, or the law 
under which they were issued does not provide, that 
they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in 
justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United 
States. (Thunders of applause.) 

" Fourth — Equal taxation of every species of prop- 
erty according to its real value, including Govern- 
ment bonds and other public securities. (Renewed 
cheering and cries of ' Read it again."') 

''''Fifth — One currency for the Government and 
the people, the laborer and the office-holder, the pen- 
sioner and the soldier, the producer and the bond- 
holder. (Great cheering and cries of ' Read it again.') 
The fifth resolution was again read and again cheered. 

'■''Sixth — Economy in the administration of the 
Government ; the reduction of the standing army and 
navy ; the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau — (great 
cheering) — and all political instrumentalities designed 
to secure negro supremacy ; simplification of the sys- 
tem, and discontinuance of inquisitorial modes of as- 
sessing and collecting Internal Revenue, so that the 
burden of taxation may be equalized and lessened ; the 
credit of the Government and the currency made good ; 
the repeal of all enactments for enrolling the State 
militia into national forces in time of peace ; and a 



250 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOtR. 

tariff for revenue upon foreign imports, and such equa. 
taxation under the Internal Revenue laws as will 
afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures, 
and as will, without impairing the revenue, impose 
the least burden upon, and yet promote and encourage 
the great industrial interests of the country. 

" Seventh — Reform of abuses in the administration, 
the expulsion of corrupt men from office, the abroga- 
tion of useless offices, the restoration of rightful author- 
ity to, and the independence of, the executive and 
judicial departments of the Government, the subordina- 
tion of the military to the civil power, to the end that 
the usurpation of Congress and the despotism of the 
sword may cease. (Cheers.) 

*' Eighth — Equal rights and protection for natural- 
ized and native-born citizens at home and abroad, the 
assertion of American nationality which shall command 
the respect of foreign powers, and furnish an example 
and encouragement to people struggling for national 
integrity, constitutional liberty and individual rights, 
and the maintenance of the rights of naturalized citi- 
zens against the absolute doctrine of immutable allegi- 
ance, and the claims of foreign powers to punish them 
for alleged crime committed beyond their jurisdiction. 
(Loud applause.) 

"In demanding these measures and reforms, we 
arraign the Radical party for its disregard of right and 
the unparalleled oppression and tjranny which have 
marked its career. 

" After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of 
both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclu- 



THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 251 

sively for the maintenance of tlie Government and the 
preservation of the Union under the Constitution, it 
has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge under 
which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army 
which carried our flag to victory. (Cheers.) Instead 
of restoring the Union it has, so far as in its power, 
dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in time of pro- 
found peace, to military despotism and negTO suprem- 
acy. It has nullified there the right of trial by jury ; 
it has abolished the habeas corpus^ that most sacred 
writ of liberty ; it has overthrown the freedom of 
speech and the press ; it has substituted arbitrary 
seizures and arrests, and military trials and secret 
star-chamber inquisitions for the constitutional tri- 
bunals ; it has disregarded in time of peace the right 
of the people to be free from searches and seizures ; it 
has entered the post and telegraph offices, and even 
the private rooms of individuals, and seized their 
private papers and letters without any specific charge 
or notice of affidavit, as required by the organic law ; 
it has converted the American capitol into a bastile ; 
it has established a system of spies and official es- 
pionage to which no constitutional monarchy of Eu- 
rope would now dare to resort — (cheers), it would 
abolish the right of appeal on important constitutional 
questions to the supreme judicial tribunal, and threatens 
to curtail or destroy its original jurisdiction which is 
irrevocably vested by the Constitution, while the 
learned Chief-Justice — (loud cheering) — has been sub- 
jected to the most atrocious calumnies, merely because 
he would not prostitute his high office to the support 



252 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

of the false and partisan charges preferred against the 
President. Its corruption and extravagance have ex- 
ceeded everj'thing known in history, and by its frauds 
and monopolies it has nearly doubled the burden of 
the debt created by the war. It has stripped the 
President of his constitutional power of appointment, 
even of his own Cabinet. Under its repeated assaults 
the pillars of the Government are rocking on their 
base, and should it succeed in November next and in- 
augurate its President, we will meet as a subjected 
and conquered people amid the ruins of liberty and 
scattered fragments of the Constitution. 

" And we do declare and resolve that ever since 
the people of the United States threw off all subjection 
to the British crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage 
have belonged to the several States, and have been 
granted, regulated, and controlled exclusively by the 
political power of each State respectively, and that any 
attempt by Congress, on any pretext whatever, to de- 
prive any State of this right, or interfere with its exer- 
cise, is a flagrant usurpation of power which can find 
no warrant in the Constitution, and if sanctioned by 
the people will subvert our form of Government, and 
can only end in a single centralized and consolidated 
government in which the separate existence of the 
States will be entirely absorbed, and an unqualified 
despotism be established in place of a Federal Union 
of coequal States. 

" And tliat we regard the Reconstruction acts (so- 
called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations and un- 
constitutional, revolutionary and void. 



THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM. 253 

" That our soldiers and sailors who carried the flag 
of our country to victory against a most gallant and 
determined foe must ever be gratefully remembered, 
and all the guarantees given in their favor must be 
faithfully carried into execution. (Cheers.) 

" That the public lands should be distributed as 
widely as possible among the people, and should be 
disposed of either under the preemption of homestead 
lands, or sold in reasonable quantities, and to none but 
actual occupants, at the minimum price established by 
the Government. When grants of public lands may 
be allowed, necessary for the encouragement of im- 
portant public improvements, the proceeds of the sale 
of such lands, and not the lands themselves, should be 
applied. (Cheers.) 

•• That the President of the United States, Andrew 
Johnson — (applause) — in exercising the power of his 
high office in resisting the aggressions of Congress upon 
the constitutional rights of the States and the people, 
is entitled to the gratitude of the whole American 
people, and in behalf of the Democratic party we tender 
him our thanks for his patriotic efforts in that regard. 
(Great applause.) 

" Upon this platform the Democratic party appeal 
to every patriot, including the consers^ative element 
and all who desire to support the Constitution and re- 
store the Union, forgetting all past differences of opin- 
ion, to unite with us in the present great struggle for 
the liberties of the people — (cheers) — and that to all 
such, to Yv'hatever party they may have heretofore be- 
longed, v.^e extend the right hand of fellowship, and 



254 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

hail all such cooperating with us as friends and breth 
ren. (Loud cheering.)" 

Mr. Murphy stated to the Convention that the 
Committee had given this platform their unanimous 
approval, and in view of this unanimity, he moved the 
previous question upon the adoption of the resolutions. 
The previous question was seconded, and the Chair put 
the question upon the adoption of the platform. A 
unanimous vote was given, viva voce^ in the afl&rmative. 
When the call was made for those opposed to the res- 
olutions, a dead silence prevailed in the hall. Not a 
voice was raised against them. Then burst forth a 
storm of cheers and applause that fairly shook the 
building to its foundations. This continued for several 
minutes. 

Upon this bold and fearless enunciation of theii* 
principles, the Democracy of the Union intend to carry 
the country with them in the coming election. Their 
cause is the cause of the country, of economy, of justice, 
and of liberty ; and not even the strong arm of the 
military power upon which their adversaries rely, can 
prevent their success. 

The Convention then adopted the "two thirds rule" 
of the former Conventions of the party ; and after a 
slight delay, the Secretary proceeded to call the roll 
of States for nominations for a candidate for the Pres- 
idency. 

The State of Connecticut presented the name of 
Governor Jas. E. English ; Maine nominated Major- 
General W. S. Hancock ; Ohio, her favorite son, George 
H.Pendleton; New Jersey, Ex-Governor Parker ; New 



THE BALLOTING. 255 

York, SandfordE. Church; Pennsylvania, Asa Packer; 
Tennessee, President Andrew Johnson ; and Wisconsin, 
Jas. E-. Doolittle. 

The balloting was then begun. On the first ballot, 
nearly all the Southern States cast their votes for An- 
drew Johnson, of Tennessee, as a mark of their grati- 
tude for his noble efforts in their behalf. Six ballots 
were taken without any thing definite being accom- 
plished, when the Convention adjourned for the day. 
On Wednesday, the 8th, the National Executive Com- 
mittee for the ensuing year was appointed, and the 
balloting resumed. Twelve ballots were taken during 
the day. The eighth ballot stood thus : 

Whole number of votes cast, 317. 

James E. English 6 

W. S. Hancock 28 

George H. Pendleton 156^ 

Joel Parker 7 

Asa Packer 26 

Andrew Johnson 6 

James R. Doolittle 12 

Thomas A. Hendricks 75 

Frank P. Blair ^ 

The full strength of Mr. Pendleton was drawn out 
by this ballot, and from that time it became evident 
that his friends would have more difficulty in securing 
his nomination than they expected. When the eightr 
eenth ballot was taken, at the close of the day's pro- 
ceedings, Mr. Pendleton's vote had declined to 56|. 

The Convention met again on Thursday morning. 



256 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

Two days Lad now been consumed in fruitless ballot 
ing, and in order to bring about a speedy choice on 
the part of the Convention, Mr. Pendleton's friends, in 
obedience to his instructions, withdrew his name as a 
candidate for the Presidency. Soon after the opening 
of the morning session, Mr. Vallandigham, of Ohio, 
rose and said : 

" Mr. President, I have a communication in writing 
to make to this Convention. By permission of the 
Chair I will read it from the stand. (Applause.) 
During which Mr. Vallandigham made his way to the 
rostrum. 

"The Chair.— Mr. Vallandigham, of Ohio, will 
make a communication to the Convention. 

"Mr. Vallandisfham. — The followiii": is the com- 

O CD 

munication to which I refer : 

'Cincinnati, July 2, 1868. 
* Washington McLean, Fifth Avenue Hotel, Neio Yorlc : 
' My Dear Sir : You know better than any one 
the feelings and principles which have guided my con- 
duct since the suggestion of my name for the Presi- 
dential nomination. You know that while I covet the 
good opinion of my countrymen, and would feel an 
honest pride in so distinguished a mark of their confi- 
dence, I do not desire it at the expense of one electoral 
vote — (great applause) — or of the least disturbance of 
the harmony of our party. I consider the success of 
the Democratic party in the next election of far greater 
importance than the gratification of an}- personal am- 
bition, however pure and lofty it might be. (Loud 



WITHDRAWAL OF MR. PENDLETON. 257 

cheers.) If, therefore, at any time a man shall be sug- 
gested which, in the opinion of yourself and those 
friends who have shared our confidence, shall be stronger 
before the country, or which can more thoroughly unite 
our own party, I beg that you will instantly withdraw 
my name, and pledge to the Convention my hearty 
and zealous and active support for its nominee. 
' Yours very truly, 

' George H. Pendleton/ 
(Great cheering.) 

" Mr. Vallandigham. — At the request of the gentle- 
man to whom this letter is addressed, I submit it to 
this Convention. It was his desire that it should have 
been done very early in the afternoon of yesterday ; 
but the earnest zeal and fidelity of the Ohio delegation, 
and the distinguished son of Ohio wdiom they had 
presented to the Convention for the office of President, 
precluded their consent to any such proposition. This 
morning his request has been renewed, and in conform- 
ity w^ith it I have produced and read the letter, and 
submit that the spirit of magnanimity, unselfishness,. 
and of patriotic devotion to the interests of the country,, 
speak in terms of far higher eulogy in behalf of this 
distinguished gentleman than any words I could utter^ 
(Great applause.) Pursuant, therefore, to the author- 
ity of Mr. McLean, and acting under the advice of 
Mr. Pendleton, I withdraw his name with hearty thanks 
to the multitude of earnest, zealous, and devoted friends 
who have adhered to him with so great fidelity. (Ap- 
plause long continued, and cheers for Pendleton.) 

"The Chairman. — Mr. Vallandigham, by the In- 
17 



258 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

struction of the Ohio delegation, withdraws the name 
of Georo;e H. Pendleton as a candidate for the Presi- 
dency before the Convention, and he does so by the 
direction of Mr. Pendleton himself. We will now 
proceed with the nineteenth ballot." 

Two more ballots were then taken, Judge Field 
and Gen. F. P. Blair having been placed in nomina- 
tion, but without a choice being made. 

Mr. Pendleton, in the letter we have given at the 
commencement of this chapter, had, as the reader will 
remember, plainly declared his preference for Governor 
Seymour as the candidate of the party, and his friends 
in the Convention now resolved to be guided by his 
wishes, and urge the nomination of Mr. Seymour in 
such a manner as would make it plain' to that gentle- 
man that it was his duty to the conservative element 
of the country to lay aside his personal wishes and yield 
to the judgment of the Convention. They had stood 
by Mr. Pendleton faithfully, until his disinterested 
devotion to the country had forced them to withdraw 
his name, and they now determined to rally upon the 
leader whom their o^vn beloved chief had offered them. 
The movement was entirely without premeditation, 
and was the result of one of those happy inspirations 
which are the sure harbingers of victory. 

Upon the announcement of the twenty-first ballot, 
General McCook rose, and to the surprise of the Con- 
vention, spoke as follows : 

" Mr. Chairman : I arise at the unanimous request 
and the demand of the deleo-ation from Ohio, and with 
the consent and approval of every public man in the 



NOillNATION OF MR. SEYMOUR. 259 

State, including the Hon. George H. Pendleton, to 
again place in nomination, against his inclination, but 
no longer against his honor, the name of Horatio 
Seymour, of New York. (Rousing cheers and long- 
continued applause.) Let us vote, Mr. Chairman, and 
gentlemen of the Convention, for a man whom the 
Presidency has sought, but who has not sought the 
Presidency. (Applause.) I believe in my heart that 
it is the solution of the problem which has been engag- 
ing the minds of the Democrats and Conservative men 
of this nation for the last six months. ('• Good,"" 
" good.") I believe it will have a solution which will 
drive from power the Vandals who now possess the 
Capitol of the nation. (Applause.) I believe it will 
receive the unanimous assent and approval of the great 
belt of States from the Atlantic — New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illi- 
nois, and Missouri, and away West for quantity — to 
the Pacific Ocean. (x4Lpplause.) I say that he has not 
sought the Presidency, and I ask — not demand — I ask 
that this Convention shall demand of him that, sinking 
his own inclination and the well-known desires on his 
part, he shall yield to what we believe to be the almost 
unanimous wish and desire of the delegates to this 
Convention. (Great applause and three cheers.) In 
my earnestness and enthusiasm, I had almost forgotten 
to cast the twenty-one votes of Ohio for Horatio 
Seymour. (Tremendous excitement, and nine cheers 
for Horatio Seymour.) " 

The nomination was hailed with the wildest ap- 
plause, and the surprise of the Convention at this sud- 



260 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

den move of the Pendleton men changed at once to 
the greatest delight. 

Mr. Seymour was taken completely by surprise. 
His refusal to be a candidate had been so emphatic 
that he had not the least idea that any one would 
venture to place him in nomination, and as soon as 
the applause which followed General McCook''s re- 
marks subsided, he advanced to the front of the plat- 
form to decline the honor thus proffered him. He 
said, in a voice unsteady with the grateful emotions 
which this unexpected and overwhelming tribute of 
the Convention had aroused in his heart : 

" Gentlemeij^" of the Convention : (Cheers) — The 
motion just made by the gentleman from Ohio excites 
in my mind the most mingled emotions. (Applause.) 
I have no terms in which to express my gratitude — 
(cheers) — for the magnanimity of his State and for the 
generosity of this Convention. (Cheers.) I have no 
terms in which to tell of my regret that my name has 
been brought before this Convention. God knows that 
my life and all that I value most iu life I would give 
for the good of my country, which I believe to be 
identified with our own party. (Applause, and cries 
of '• Take the nomination then.") I do not stand here 
as a man proud of his opinions, or obstinate in his 
purposes, but upon a question of duty and of honor I 
must stand upon my own convictions against the world. 
(Applause, and a voice, " God bless you, Horatio Sey- 
mour.") Gentlemen, when I said here at an early day, 
that honor forbade my accepting a nomination by this 
Convention, I meant it. When, in the course of my 



MR. SETMOUR^S REMARKS. 26 1 

intercourse with those of my own delegation and my 
friends, I said to them that I could not be a candidate, 
I meant it. And now permit me here to say that T 
know, after all that has taken place, I could not re- 
ceive the nomination without placing, not only myself, 
but the great Democratic party, in a false position. 
But, gentlemen of the Convention, more than that, we 
have had to-day an exhibition from the distinguished 
citizen of Ohio, that has touched my heart, as it has 
touched yours. (Cheers.) I thank God, and I con- 
gratulate this country, that there is in the great State 
of Ohio, whose magnificent position give it so great a 
control over the action of cur country, a young man, 
rising fast into fame, whose future is all glorious, who 
has told the world he could tread beneath his feet every 
other consideration than that of duty, and when he 
expressed to his delegation, and expressed in more 
direct terms, that he was willing that I should be nom- 
inated, who stood in such a position of marked oppo- 
sition to his own nomination, I should feel a dishonored 
man if I could not tread in the far distance, and in a 
feeble way, the same honorable pathway which he has 
marked out. (Great applause.) Gentlemen, I thank 
you, and may God bless you for j^our kindness to me ; 
but your candidate I cannot be." (Three cheers for 
Horatio Seymour.) 

This plain refusal did not in the least abate the en- 
thusiasm of the Convention or lessen the determina- 
tion of the delegates. As Mr. Seymour resumed his 
seat, Mr. Vallandigham rose, and in clear sonorous 
tones declared that the Governor had no right to de- 



262 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

cline the nomination in view of the unusual circum* 
stances of the case. Said he : 

'• In times of great public exigency, and especially 
in times of great public calamity, every personal con- 
sideration must be yielded to the public good. (Ap- 
plause.) The safety of the people is the supreme law, 
and the safety of the American Kepublic demands the 
nomination of Horatio Seymour, of New York. 
(Cheers.) Ohio cannot ; Ohio will not accept his dec- 
lination, and her twenty-one votes shall stand recorded 
in his name. . (Cries of "good, good," and cheers.) 
And now I call upon the delegations from all the 
States represented on this floor ; upon the delegations 
from all the States of this Union, from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, from the great lakes to the gulf, disre- 
garding those minor considerations which justly, it may 
be, properly I know, tend to sway them in casting 
their ballots, to make this nomination unanimous ; and 
before God, I believe that in November, the judgment 
of this Convention will be confirmed and ratified by 
the people of all the United States. (Applause.) 
Let the vote of Ohio stand recorded then — twenty-one 
votes for Horatio Seymour. (Immense and continued 
applause.) 

" Mr. Kernan (New York) — Mr. President : Be- 
lono'iiio; to the deles-ation from the State of New York, 
and comins; from the district where the President of 
this Convention lives, I cannot, as an individual dele- 
gate, refrain from asking the indulgence of this Con- 
vention in makino; one or two observations. And in 
order that we may relieve every body, in order that 



SPEECH OF MR. KERN AN. 263 

we may relieve our Chairman from every bit of sen- 
sitiveness on the question of honor, I desire to say, 
on behalf of the delegation from the State of New 
York, that they have had neither lot nor part in 
the motion, which in our hearts we yet rejoice to hear 
from the State of Ohio. (Applause.) We heard but 
recently that some such movement was thought, by 
wise and good men, necessary for the safety of our 
country, but our hearts were coerced out of deference 
to the sensitiveness of the gentleman who presides 
over this Convention, and we told them we could have 
neither lot nor part in it, unless others overcome that 
which we had never been able to do. Now, sir, let 
me say another word ; we have balloted two or three 
days; we have balloted, thank God, in the best of 
temper and of spirits ; we have resolved, and we re- 
quired the judgment of two-thirds of the delegates of 
this Convention for our nominee, to the end that we 
might be sure, for the sake of our country, that we 
would have a majority of the electors next November. 
And after striving hard, after striving long, and after 
consulting as well as we could in reference to the vari- 
ous names brought before us, we have not been able 
)'et to convince the judgment of two-thirds of the Con- 
vention for the candidates we have supported. Nevv- 
York has steadily voted her judgment with kind feel- 
ings to other candidates. We have pronounced as our 
second choice for a distinguished citizen of Indiana. 
But it seems to me that after t\iis long struggle, and 
in this crisis of our affairs, and in view of what is so 
important to every man, woman and child in this 



264 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

Union — that we should succeed in November — it 
seems to me now, in reference to our distinguished 
Chairman, that his honor is entirely safe. No one can 
doubt that he has steadily and in good faith declined ; 
but now his honor is safe, and his duty to his countiy, 
his duty to his fellow-citizens, to all that shall come 
after us, requires that he shall let the judgment of the 
delegates of this Convention prevail ; and if it should 
select him as the standard-bearer, most certain, in 
their opinion, to win a triumph for the country next 
November. (Applause.) We leave it in the hands 
of others, as we are constrained to do; but I give it 
as my judgment, for the past, the present, and the 
future, that if we should select him as the man, in 
our judgment, upon whom we can all unite, New 
York will fall in and give a majority of a hundred 
thousand without a canvass. (Great cheers.)'' 

The Secretary then continued to call the roll of the 
States, each delegation answering with a unanimous vote 
for Horatio Seymour. The States which had already 
voted now changed their votes to Sejonour, and it re- 
quired no prophet to foresee that there would be no 
division of the vote this time. The balloting was car- 
ried on amidst the wildest excitement. Cheer after cheer 
rang through the vast building; the audience and 
delegates sprang to their feet and waved their hats and 
handkerchiefs, and Mr. Seymour, seeing that he could 
not in justice to himself or the country, refuse longer 
to yield to the current which was sweeping ever}' thing 
before it, relinquished the chair to a Vice-President, 
and withdrew to the body of the hall. Order being 
partially restored, the Chairman said: 



SCENE IN THE CONVENTION. 265 

" The Honorable Horatio Seymour having received 
the unanimous vote of this Convention, I therefore 
declare him candidate, and the standardbearer of the 
Democratic party in the ensuing election." 

Ao;ain the hall rano^ with cheers. The enthusiasm 
of the Convention spread to the crowds in the street 
"vvithout, and cheer after cheer greeted the annnounce- 
ment. 

Never was the nomination of any public man for 
any position more enthusiastically made or received 
than was that of Mr. Seymour.* 

* The following card from Mr. Vallandigham, which appeared in the 
^eic TorJc Herald of July 26th, sets at rest the slauders which the 
enemies of Mr. Seymour have set on foot. 
" THE TAMMANY NOMINATIONS— LETTEPw FROM MR. VAL- 
LANDIGHAM. 

VALLANDIGHAJI AND TWO NEW TOEK DELEGATES RESPONSIBLE FOE SET- 
moue's NOMTNATION. 

'Every day brings to light some new feature in the conduct of the 
managers of the Democratic Convention. It is now understood that the 
night preceding the nomination the Ohio delegation met, and Laving care- 
fully canvassed the situation, again determined to support Pendleton. 
With this understanding the delegation adjourned. Later in the night 
Vallandigham and two New York delegates had a consultation, which 
lasted until daylight. 

' When the Convention met, Ohio instead of voting for Pendleton, 
withdrew his name, and before the delegation knew what they were 
about the name of Seymour was hoisted and carried through with a rush. 
When this trick was discovered there was great outcry among the Ohio- 
ans, and Vallandigham, General McCook, Pugh and Thurman, who were 
discovered to have been the perpetrators, were alluded to in no very tem- 
perate epithets. 

'These men the democratic party must hold responsible for the humil- 
iating attitude it holds before the eyes of the nation, and at their door 
should be laid the blame of the sacrifice of so fair a prospect of success.' — 
Washington correspondence of Xew Yorh Herald^ July 16.' 

" In the above are many inaccuracies. 



266 LIFE OF HOEATIO SEYMOUR. 

After the announcement of the nomination, the 
Convention adjourned until the afternoon. 

" 1. Tlie OLio delegation did not the night before the nomination 
determine to continue to support Pendleton. On the contraiy, McLean 
gave distinct notice to the delegation that in the morning he would pre- 
sent Mr. Pendleton's letter of declination. Some time later than mid- 
niglit the delegation, after a hot debate, adjourned, without agreeing 
upon a candidate. In the morning they met ; Ilancock received a major- 
ity of the votes ; there was much excitement, and finally it was resolved 
to cast the first ballot for Packer. Seymour was canvassed and found to 
be acceptable whenever it should be deemed advisable to present his name. 

"2. Vallandigham did not meet with two delegates, nor with one or 
any, from New York, at all that night, much less consult with them till 
daylight. In the morning, upon the assembling of the Convention, he 
learned personally and definitely that the New York delegation did not 
feel at liberty to support Seymour, and replied that if necessary he would 
be put in nomination notwithstanding. 

"3. Seymour's name was not 'hoisted' before the Ohio delegation 
knew what they were about. Colonel McCook called the delegation out, 
and by vote was instructed to put Seymour in nomination. 

" 4r. There was no ' trick,' and therefore no ' discove:y,' and, of 
course, no ' outcry ' from Ohioans on the subject. 

" 5. Neither Mr. Pugh nor Judge Thurman was present nor had 
knowledge of the movement, and no epithets, ' temperate ' or other- 
wise, were applied to them, nor to any body else. 

" 6. The men who were responsible for the nomination of Governor 
Seymour rejoice, no doubt, in the responsibility, especially in view of 
the strong and rapidly increasing probabilities of Ins election. 

"7. As a matter of opinion I believe that had New York withheld 
her vote from Mr. Hendricks, Judge Chase would have been nominated 
within an hour. 

" So much by way of correction. As to the manner in which tlie 
nomination was partly brought about and partly happened It is not prop- 
er that any thing be said further, except that positively Governor Sey- 
mour bad no knowledge or intimation of the movement till twenty min- 
utes previous to his nomination, and acted in good faith throughout, and, 
moreover, will go into the Presidential office without a single pledge or 
promise of any kind made to any one previous to his nomination. 

" As to the pretended exultation of a part of the Republican press 
over the Democratic nominations, pay no heed to it. Itisr:n old trick 



ADJOURNMENT OF THE CONVENTIO? ^6Y 

In the afternoon the Convention re-asseiiiblerl, and 
on the first ballot chose Major General Francis P. 
Blair, of Missouri, as the Democratic candidate for 
the office of Vice-President of the United States, after 
which the Convention adjourned sine die. 

The Convention was the most harmonious and en- 
thusiastic the party has ever seen, and its labors have 
met with an endorsement from the people which 
promises a brilliant success for its nominees in No- 
vember. Everywhere our cause is triumphing over 
Padicalism, and Americans of all classes are waiting 
for the day when they shall have an opportunity of 
following the old Democratic flag to the most glorious 
victory it has ever gleamed upon. 

and very shallow. The more sagacious and candid Republican orgnn?, 
such as the New York Times and Commercial Advertiser, advise their 
friends ' to stop trifling and boasting and set to work without delay.' 
And the Advertiser declares that ' Seymour is the most popular man in 
the democratic party.' 

" Elections already held within a year show that the Democracy are 
almost in the ascendency in States enough to give a majority of electoral 
votes to Seymour and Blair. Add now to these that vast multitude of 
burdened, wronged, oppressed and discontented people among the Repub- 
lican masses, and who are determined to 'have a change,' and success 
in November is certain. 

" I have now myself been in Xew Tork, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland and Delaware, and can say with truth that among the Demo- 
cratic masses no nominations have been made for years which are receiv- 
ed with so much satisfaction, and that I have never known a time when 
among these masses there was such universal confidence in success. Noth- 
ing now is needed but combined wisdom and boldness in planning and 
conducting the campaign. 

" 0. L. V. 

" Newark, Del., July 18, 1868." 



268 



LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 



The followins: is a statement of all the ballots cast 
for the nominee for the Presidency : 





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CHAPTER XL 

Mr. Seymour Decides to Accept the Nomination conferred upon Lim by 
the Convention — The Motives of liis Action — Formal Tender of the 
l^J'ominati'in — Scene in Tammany Hall — Speech of General Morgan 
— Reply of Mr. Seymour — Enthusiasm of the Audience — The Meet- 
ing in Fourteenth Street — Speech of Mr. Seymour — How the News 
was received throughout the Country — Comments of the Press — 
Tributes from Republicans — Governor Seymour returns Home — 
Scenes along the Route — Arrival at Utica — Uis Welcome Home — 
An overwhelming Demonstration — His Speech at TJtica — Retires to 
his Home — His Letter of Acceptance. 

Mr. Seymour, as we have said, hud declined to 
allow his name to be presented to the Convention for 
the nomination, upon the assembling of that body, and 
had refused to accept the nomination when it was 
tendered to him by General McCook, of Ohio, and 
many persons were in doubt after the adjournment of 
the Convention, as to whether he would still persist in 
his refusal. Had he followed his own impulses, he 
would most likely have done so, but the unusual cir- 
cumstances of his nomination made him no Ioniser a 
free a2;ent in the matter. He had been chosen ao;ainst 
his wishes and repeated requests not to be put in 
nomination, and the overwhelming and resistless en- 
thusiasm of the Convention made it plain beyond all 
doubt that he was the free and genuine choice of the 
Democratic party. In the position in which he had 
been placed, he would have been ungrateful to his 



270 LIFE OF nOEATIO SEYMOUR. 

friends, and untrue to his country, had he still refused 
to sacrifice his personal preference to the wishes of the 
party as expressed so emphatically by the Convention. 
His first duty was to the country, and the unhappy 
condition of public aflfairs at this time made that duty 
doubly binding upon him. The great conservative 
masses of the nation had chosen him as the one best 
fitted to the task of restoring our lost prosperity and 
the good feeling between the various sections of the 
Union, and it was his duty as a patriot to bow to the 
decision thus made, and accept the honor thus con- 
ferred upon him. 

Taking this view of the matter, IMr. Seymour ex- 
pressed his willingness to accept the nomination of the 
Convention whenever it should be formally tendered 
to him. 

As a fitting finale to the proceedings of the Con- 
vention, it was resolved to make a formal public tender 
of the nominations to the candidates on the night after 
the adjournment of that body, and accordingly on Fri- 
day night, July 10th, a large and brilliant audience 
assembled in Tammany Hall to take part in this 
interesting proceeding. The hall was densely crowded, 
and Fourteenth street, in front of the building, was 
thronged with an enthusiastic multitude. The meet- 
ing in the hall was organized by the choice of ]Mr. S. 
J. Tilden as President. Mr. Tilden announced the 
object of the meeting in a few well-chosen remarks, 
and presented to the audience Mr. Seymour, who 
advanced to the front of the platform. The vast 
audience sprang to their feet simultaneously, and cheer 



SCENE IN TAMMANY HALL. 271 

after cheer burst from them, and was caught up and 
reechoed by the crowd in the street. Scarcely would 
one round of applause die away before it would be 
succeeded by another, and for fully five minutes the 
scene was thrilling beyond description. When order 
was restored, General Morgan, the Chairman of the 
Committee charged with the duty of tendering the 
nominations, turned to Mr. Seymour and said : 

"Governor Seymour — On behalf of the committee 
appointed for that purpose, I have the pleasure. Sir, 
of presenting to you a communication announcing your 
unanimous nomination as the candidate for the office 
of the President of the United States, by the National 
Democratic Convention ; and on behalf. Sir, of the 
Conservative and Democratic people of the States 
whom we have the honor to represent, we here pledge 
their united and cordial efforts in securing relief to the 
countr}^ from the thraldom which now possesses it, and 
in placing you, Sir, as the Chief Magistrate of the 
United States, in the Executiv^e chair." 

Tremendous cheering followed this address. When 
this had subsided, Governour Seymour replied as 
follows : 

" ]Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee : 
I thank you for the courteous terms in which you have 
communicated to me the action of the Democratic 
National Convention. (Cheers.) I have no words 
adequate to ex^^ress my gratitude for the good will and 
kindness which that body has shown to me. Its nom- 
ination was unsought, and unexpected. It was my 
ambition to take an active part, from which I am now 



272 LIFE OF UORATIO SEYMOUR. 

excluded, in the great struggle going on for the 
restoration of good government, of peace and prosper- 
ity to our country. (Great cheering.) But I have 
been caught up by the whelming tide that is bearing 
us on to a great political change, and I find myself 
unable to resist its pressure. (Loud cheers.) You 
have also given to me a copy of the resolutions put 
forth by the Convention, showing its position upon all 
the great questions which now agitate the country. 
As the presiding officer of that Convention, I am 
familiar with their scope and import, and as one of its 
members I am a party to their terms; they are in 
accord with my views, and I stand upon them in the 
contest upon which we are now entering ; and I shall 
strive to carry them out in future wherever I jnay be 
placed, in public or private life. (Cheers.) I con- 
gratulate you, and all conservative men, who seek to 
restore order, peace, prosperity, and good government 
to our land, upon the evidences everywhere shown, that 
we are to triumph at the next election. (Prolonged 
cheering.) Those who are politically opposed to us 
flattered themselves there would be discord in our 
councils ; they mistook the uncertainties of our views 
as to the best methods of carrying out our purposes 
for difference of opinion with regard to those purposes. 
They mistook an intense anxiety to do no act which 
should not be wise and judicious for a spirit of discord, 
but during the lengthened proceedings and earnest dis- 
cussions of the Convention there has prevailed an entire 
harmon}'^ of intercourse, a patient forbearance, and a 
self-sacrificing spirit, which are the sure tokens of a 



MR. SEYMOUR ACCEPTS THE NOMINATION. 273 

coming victory. Accept for yourselves, gentlemen, my 
■wishes for your future welfare and happiness. (Cheers. ) 
In a few days I will answer the communication you 
have just handed me by letter, as is the customary 
form." (Tremendous and long-continued cheering.) 

The nomination of Vice President was then form- 
ally tendered to General Blair, who accepted it in an 
eloquent address. 

During all this w^hile the crowd in the street had 
been calling impatiently for Mr. Seymour, and at the 
close of the ceremonies in the hall he appeared on the 
balcony, and addressed them as follows : 

" Fellow-citizens : I am unable with my broken 
voice and exhausted frame to do more than return you 
my sincere thanks for the compliment w^hich you now 
pay me. May God bless you, and may he bless our 
country, and may he give us in the pending contest 
that triumph wdiich will tend to secure constitutional 
law, good order, peace, and prosperity to our land. I 
can say no more, but to bid you good night, and once 
more to thank you for your kindness to me." 

The nomination of Mr. Seymour M-as everywhere 
hailed wdth delight by the party. The following com- 
ments of the Democratic press will show this. The 
Cmcimiati Inquirer^ Mr. Pendleton's organ, in its issue 
of July 10th, said: 

" As we stated yesterday, the Democratic ticket is 
one of which not only the party but the country may 
well be proud. It has been long since there was so 
strong a combination of intellectual vigor, force of 
character, and statesmanlike experience presented to 
18 



274 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

the suffrages of the American people. The name of 
Horatio Seymour is a tower of strength, and challenges 
not only the warm admiration of his political friends, 
but the respect, if not esteem, of his opponents. If 
there is a man who is eminently qualified for the Presi- 
dential office, who would fill it with dignity, with con- 
summate tact, who would honor the place, it is Horatio 
Seymour. There is no qualification in which he is 
deficient. He is a ripe scholar, a polished writer, a 
splendid orator, a profound thinker, who has made the 
science of government his lifelong study ; and in addi- 
tion, he has every personal grace and accomplishment 
that are properly associated with so exalted an office. 
He has a national fame and reputation as extensive as 
that of any man in the Union. More than all, he is 
devotedly attached to the Constitution as it was made 
by the fathers, and would administer it strictly upon 
the principles of Jefferson and Madison. Not the least 
flaw or defect can be found with his general political 
record. No man has fought more gallantly the battles 
of the Democracy and the Union. He has wielded 
an intellectual weapon in their behalf as keen as a 
Damascus blade. 

" The selection of Mr. Seymour is peculiarly fortu- 
nate at this time, for the practice has latterly been to 
select mediocrity and inexperience for Pi'esidential 
honors, rather than consummate talent and ripe ex- 
perience. The election of Mr. Seymour would redeem 
us from the reproach that has been cast upon us, that 
it is impossible to place a first-class statesman in the 
Presidential office. The delegates from Ohio and the 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 275 

West faithfully discharged their duty when, Mr. Pendle- 
ton being no longer in the field, they gave their votes 
to the distinguished statesman of the Empire State. 
It is true there has been a diverg-ence of views to some 
extent in the sentiments of Mr. Seymour and Mr. 
Pendleton, upon the greenback question, but the adop- 
tion of a platform which is a substantial affirmation of 
Mr. Pendleton's creed, and the acceptance by Mr. 
Seymour of a nomination upon it, will remove all 
difficulty, and be generally acceptable to the entire 
Democracy of the country. Mr. Seymour being a man 
of high personal honor, may be safely trusted to carry 
out and give administrative enforcement to all the 
doctrines of the platform upon which he is running, 
and in behalf of which the suffrages of the people are 
solicited. On the negro suffrage issue, and on all the 
points involved in the so-called Congressional recon- 
struction, Mr. Seymour occupies the most advanced 
Democratic ground, as is well known to every one who 
has read liis man}'' magnificent addresses denunciatory 
of the whole Radical Cono-ressional scheme. Mr. 
Seymours sentiments on this question render him par- 
ticularly acceptable to the Democracy of tlie Great 
West. 

"General Frank P. Blair, the nominee for Vice- 
President, is another selection which possesses eminent 
fitness at this time. General Blair comes of good 
Democratic stock, and his name is redolent with a 
Jacksonian and Bentonian flavor that is exceedinolv 
pleasant to the Old-line Democracy. His father was 
the confidential friend of President Jackson, and con- 



276 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

ducted the "Washington Glohe, the official organ, during 
the twelve years' administration of Jackson and Van 
Burcn. His son Frank has inherited the force of 
character and the intellectual vigor of his father, which 
was always remarkable, and which has been evinced 
during^ his Ion*? and eventful life. General Blair is 
the soul of honor, as fine a representative of true and 
genuine manhood as the country affords. There was 
no better, no more gallant soldier in the late war than 
General Blair, none who received higher encomiums 
for distin2:uished and meritorious services. He was 
for a long period the commanding officer of the fighting 
Seventeenth Corps in Shermans anny, which per- 
formed prodigies of valor on all the battle-fields from 
the Ohio to the sea. The Radical press, who now 
affect to disparage this gallant officer, were then warm 
and enthusiastic in his praise. Their abuse of to-day 
is answered by their compliments to him then. It is 
true that General Blair for a time acted with the Ke- 
publican party, but, like thousands of others, he became 
distrusted with its excesses, and returned ao:ain to the 
old Democratic household. But even when acting 
with the Republicans, he never gave any countenance 
or favor to the atrocious doctrine of negro equality, but 
always favored the supremacy of the white race, and 
insisted that to it alone should be intrusted the des- 
tinies of the country. But Mr. Blair's merits as a citi- 
zen soldier are not his only claims to public favor. 
He, too, possesses civic experience, and long and inti- 
mate acquaintance with American politics. He has 
been in Congress, and would make an accomplished 
officer in the Senate. 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 277 

" Almost every element of strength is combined in 
this ticket of Seymour and Blair. One comes from 
the extreme East, the other from the extreme West. 
It unites, as we have shown, both civil and military 
talent and experience. If the Old-line Democrats hail 
with rapture the nomination of Horatio Seymour, the 
dissatisfied Kepublicans, together with the soldiers and 
sailors, recognize in General Blairs selection a compli- 
ment to them, and a testimonial of the liberality of the 
Democratic organization. This ticket was nominated 
to be elected ; and elected it will be, by one of the most 
triumphant majorities known in the history of modern 
Presidential campaigns. Every thing indicates this. 
We regard it as certain as any event in the future can 
possibly be. The hour has arrived for political deliver- 
ance from the most intolerable oppression and misgov- 
ernment which has so long afflicted the country. The 
people are ripe for a change, and a change in Novem- 
ber we shall have. Messrs. Seymour and Blair are 
the next President and Vice-President of the United 
States." 

The Portland (Maine) Argus said: 

" Horatio Sejmour is the foremost living statesman 
of our country. In private life he is the pure, upright 
citizen ; in public life he has ever been distinguished 
for enlarged and liberal views, and for devoted patriot- 
ism. No man in the country is better qualified for the 
wise discharge of the responsible duties of President ; 
and if elected, his whole mighty energies will be ex- 
pended in endeavors to bring to our country peace, 
union and prosperity." 



278 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

The Hartford (Connecticut) Times said : 

" Governor Seymour's reputation is wider than the 
Union, and his ability and integrity are believed to be 
fully equal to the high duties which he will be called 
upon to discharge. We need not say that the nomi- 
nation has fallen upon a true and reliable representa- 
tive of the Democratic party. Without derogation of 
the patriotism or the power of the eminent man who 
wears the robes of the Chief Justice, we may say that 
at this juncture it required a Democrat to unite the 
great party of the people, and to win. This does win. 
Governor Seymour will be elected. The platform is as 
sound and strong as the nomination. Both will sweep 
the West like a ^\hirlwind, and indeed carry nearly all 
the Northern States, as well as some of the Southem," 

The Rochester (N. Y.) Union said : 

" It would be sheer affectation in us to say that Ave 
are overjoyed at the nomination of New York's favor- 
ite son, the first statesman of the day, for the first office 
in earthly government, by the Democratic National 
Convention. The circumstance and the manner of this 
nomination render it doubly gratifying — especially 
gratifying in this, that it wipes away every semblance 
of antagonism in the Democratic and Conservative 
ranks, and imites them in solid column. * v * 
The East and the West, the North and the South, 
meet upon the common platform of principles laid 
down with such striking force and unanimity, and fol- 
lowing the lead of Horatio Seymour we will march to 
triumph at the ballot-box. Yielding to General Grant 
all that is claimed for him, the people know and feel 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS, 279 

that for the high civil station of Chief Magistrate of 
this country, he is as the mole-hill to the mountain com- 
pared to Governor Seymour. Their interests, their 
honor, their every thing demands a statesman in the 
Presidential chair — a man who will command the re- 
spect of the world at home and the world abroad ; and 
who will administer the Executive office with an Intel 
ligence, with a dignity, and with a success that will 
restore the once proud prestige of the United States. 
Such a man is Horatio Seymour, the scholar, the 
statesman, the Christian gentleman, whose private 
character is spotless, and whose public record has with- 
stood the assaults of every foe and still defies them. 
Is General Grant such a man ? We put this question 
home to our Republican fellow-citizens, whose interests 
and honor in the Government are identical with those 
of their Democratic fellow-citizens. As a soldier Gen- 
eral Grant has been successful, and he has been re- 
warded — he holds the highest military command in the 
world, settled upon him for life, with an income at- 
tached that renders himself and his family independent 
As a civilian he has been a failure in every avocation 
that he has tried ; and repeatedly he has confessed, and 
by his acts has given evidence, that he is not fitted by 
either education or taste for a political station. We 
cannot doubt the verdict of the people — that they will 
call Horatio Seymour to the Presidency, and leave 
General Grant to wear the laurels and enjoy the emol- 
uments of the only office for which he is fitted. No 
happier choice for the second place upon the ticket 
could have been made than that of Major-General 



280 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

Francis P. Blair, of Missouri, the great soldier of the 
West, and a statesman of national reputation. He 
represents the volunteer army, which enlisted to put 
down the rebellion that peace and Union might be re- 
stored, combining the private in the ranks and the 
general in command ; as he also represents the old 
anti-Slavery element which warred against the ' pecu- 
liar institution' of the South, and which, now that 
that institution has gone to its grave with the rubbish 
of the past, demands that we shall have a Union of 
States in fact as well as in name, according to our 
constitutional system and upon the basis of universal 
freedom." 

The fair-minded Kepublicans were equally frank in 
their tributes. The Netu York Sun, an able and inde- 
pendent journal, said of the nomination : 

''We but repeat what we have repeatedly said, 
w'hen we assert that Governor Seymour is the most 
distinguished member of the Democratic party. Though 
he was clearly entitled to its nomination, the extraor- 
dinary unanimity with which it was conferred upon 
him amid the most intense excitement and unbounded 
enthusiasm, must be extremely gTatifying to his feel- 
ings. He is the fair representative of the average sen- 
timents of the Democracy upon all the leading issues 
of the canvass. He is the most popular candidate that 
could have been selected to command the vote of the 
party on this side of the Alleghanies. On all the 
questions that agitate this section of the Union, his 
views, so often and so recently expressed, arc fully un- 
derstood. General Blair is a man of fair talents and 



GOV. SEYMOUR RETURNS HOME. 281 

great force of character. He did good service in the 
field during the war, and has had some experience in 
civil life. Though coming of a pure Democratic stock, 
he acted with the' Republicans from the organization 
of that party down to about the period of the death of 
Mr. Lincoln, when his political course became some- 
what waj^ward and fitful. In his recent letter he takes 
far higher ground than that laid down in the Dem- 
ocratic platform in favor of overturning the recon- 
struction policy of Congress and remanding the South- 
ern States to their condition at the close of the war. 
General Blair is a gentleman of strict temperance prin- 
ciples, and popular among his personal friends." 

Governor Seymour left New York for his home in 
Utica on the 11th of July, takhig the night boat to 
Albany, where he remained during Sunday, the 1 2th. 
On Monday he resumed his journey home, passing over 
the New York Central Railway. He had sufi'ered on 
Sunday from a severe attack of diphtheria, and was 
anxious that no demonstration should be made alone: 
the route to his home. The news of his journey, how- 
ever, had preceded him, and at every town he was met 
and welcomed by enthusiastic crowds. The demon- 
strations were very heartj^, and touched the Governor 
deeply. He was too unwell to speak, however, and 
his thanks -were returned through other persons. 

Upon reaching Utica, he was received with a per- 
fect ovation. The depot, the hotels, the stores, and 
many of the private residences, were handsomely dec- 
orated with flags. The Governor was formally re- 
ceived by the Mayor of the town and a Committee of 



282 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

citizens, and escorted to a platform tastefully festooned 
with flags, passing through a double row of young girls 
from the " Christian Brothers' School " and the Sisters 
of Charity Orphan Asylum. These little ones had 
frequently enjoyed the hospitalities of Mr. Seymour in 
their pic-nics on his grounds, and were enthusiastic in 
their reception of him. The church and factory bells 
were rung, and a salute fired from a battery of artil- 
lery. Upon reaching the platform, Mr. Seymour was 
greeted with hearty cheers. He was then addressed, 
on behalf of his fellow-citizens, by Hon. Hiram Denio, 
late Chief Justice of the State of New York. Mr. 
Denio said : 

" Governor Seymour : — A number of your towns- 
men and fellow-citizens casually assembled here tender 
you a hearty welcome to your home. Our meeting 
to-day is especially interesting on account of the events 
of the last week. They have placed you in a peculiar 
position before the country. (Cheers.) As a candi- 
date for the highest position in the nation, your name 
is made a rallying point of that large portion of our 
people who, with me, attribute the difficulties and 
dangers of our political and financial situation — which 
cannot well be exaggerated — to the unwise proceedings, 
amounting to infatuation, of the existing legislative 
branch of our national Government. We are gratified 
that the choice of the Convention has fallen upon you, 
and we anticipate with confidence that their nomination 
will be ratified by the people. (Great cheering.)" 

Amid tremendous cheering Governor Seymour re- 
sponded as follows : 



RECEPTION AT UTICA. 283 

" I have been very grateful for the marks of good 
will which I have received from the representatives of 
the Democratic party of all the States in this Union, 
but this exhibition of kindness and partiality from my 
own townsmen impresses itself upon my heart most 
deeply of all. (Cheers.) During the whole course 
of my life I have received from them, without distinc- 
tion of party, proofs of good will that I shall ever 
cherish with gratitude during the remainder of my 
existence. (Cheers.) I am now suffering from a vio- 
lent inflammation in my throat which, my physician 
advises me, makes it dangerous to speak in the open 
air, but at the risk of my life I must thank you for 
this striking and gratifying proof of your good will 
and partiality towards me. (Loud cheering.)" 

After this reception, Mr. Seymour retired to his 
residence near the town, where he received the con- 
gratulations of his neighbors. 

On the 4th of August, Mr. Seymour sent to the 
Committee appointed by the Convention, the following 
letter of acceptance : 

" Utica, August 4. 

" Gentlemen : When in the City of New York on 
the 11th of July, in the presence of a vast multitude, 
on behalf of the National Democratic Convention, 
you tendered to me its unanimous nomination as its 
candidate for the office of President of the United 
States, I stated I had no words ' adequate to express 
my gratitude for the good will and kindness which 
that body had shown to me. Its nomination was un- 
sought and unexpected. It was my ambition to take 



284 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

an active part, from which I am now excluded, in the 
jrreat .strun^o-le now goino; on for the restoration of <iood 
government, of peace and prosperity to our country. 
But I have been caught up by the whelming tide which 
is bearing us on to a great political change, and I find 
myself unable to resist its pressure. You have also 
given me a copy of the resolutions put forth by the 
Convention, showing its position upon all the great 
questions which now agitate the country. As the pre- 
siding officer of that Convention, I am familiar with 
their scope and import ; as one of its members, I am 
a party to their terms. They are in accord with my 
views, and I stand upon them in the contest upon 
which we are now entering, and shall strive to carry 
them out in future, wherever I may be placed, in po- 
litical or private life.' 

" I then stated that I would send you these words 
of acceptance in a letter, as is the customary foiTn. I 
see no reason, upon reflection, to change or qualify the 
terms of my approval of the resolutions of the Con- 
vention. 

"I have delayed the mere formal act of communica- 
ting to you in writing what I thus publicly said, for 
the purpose of seeing what light the action of Con- 
gress would throw upon the interests of the country. 
Its acts since the adjournment of the Convention show 
an alarm lest a change of political power will give to 
the people what they ought to have — a clear statement 
of what has been done with the money drawn from 
them during the past eight years. Thoughtful men 
feel that there have been wrongs in the financial man- 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 285 

ageinent which have been kept from the public knowl- 
edge. The Congressional party .has not only allied 
itself with military power, which is to be brought to 
bear directly upon the elections in many States, but 
it also holds itself in perpetual session, with the avowed 
purpose of making such laws as it shall see fit, in view 
of the elections which will take place within a few 
weeks. It did not, therefore, adjourn, but took a re- 
cess, to meet again if its partisan interests shall demand 
its reassembling. Never before in the history of our 
country has Congress thus taken a menacing attitude 
towards its electors. Under its influence some of the 
States organized by its agents are proposing to deprive 
the people of the right to vote for Presidential elec- 
tors, and the first bold steps are taken to destro}' the 
riohts of suffrasie. It is not stran";e, therefore, that 
thoughtful men see in such action the proof that there 
is with those who shape the policy of the Republican 
party, motives stronger and deeper than the mere wish 
to hold political power ; that there is a dread of some 
exposure which drives them on to acts so desperate 
and impolitic. 

'*■ Many of the ablest leaders and journals of the 
Republican party have openly deplored the violence 
of Congressional action and its tendency to keep up 
discord in our country. The great interests of our 
Union demand peace, order, and a return to those in- 
dustrial pursuits without which we cannot maintain 
the faith or honor of our Government. The minds of 
business men are perplexed by uncertainties. The 
hours of toil of our laborers are lengthened by the 



286 LIFE OF nORATIO SEYMOUR. 

costs of living made by the direct and indirect exac- 
tions of Government. Our people are harassed by 
the heavy and frequent demands of the tax-gatherer. 
Without distinction of party there is a strong feeling 
in favor of that line of action which shall restore order 
and confidence, and shall lift off the burdens which 
now hinder and vex the industry of the country. Yet 
at this moment those in power have thrown into the 
Senate Chamber and Congressional Hall new elements 
of discord and violence. Men have been admitted as 
Representatives of some of the Southern States, with 
the declaration upon their lips that they cannot live in 
the States they claim to represent without military 
protection. These men are to make laws for the 
North as well as the South. These men, who a few 
days since were seeking as suppliants that Congress 
would give them power within their respective States, 
are to-day the masters and controllers of the actions 
of those bodies. Entering them with minds filled with 
passions, their first demands have been that Congress 
shall look upon the States from which they come as in 
conditions of civil war ; that the majority of their pop- 
ulations, embracing their intelligence, shall be treated 
as public enemies ; that military forces shall be kept 
up at the cost of the people of the North, and that 
there shall be no peace and order at the South save 
that which is made by arbitrary power. Every intel- 
ligent man knows that these men owe their seats in 
Congress to the disorder in the South ; every man 
knoAvs that they not only owe their present positions 
to disorder, but that every motive springing from the 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 287 

love of power, of gain, of a desire for vengeance, 
prompts them to keep the South in anarchy. While 
that exists, they are independent of the wills or wishes 
of their foUow-citizens. While confusion reigns, they 
are the dispensers of the profits and the honors which 
grow out of the government of mere force. These 
men are now placed in positions where they cannot 
urge their views of policy, but where they can enforce 
them. When others shall be admitted in this manner 
from the remaining Southern States, although they 
will have in truth no constituents, they will have more 
power in the Senate than a majority of the people of 
this Union living in nine of the great States. In vain 
the wisest members of the Republican party protested 
against the policy that led to this result. While the 
chiefs of the late rebellion have submitted to the re- 
sults of the war, and are now quietly engaged in useful 
pursuits for the support of themselves and their fam- 
ilies, and are trying by the force of their example to 
lead back the people of the South to the order and in- 
dustry, not only essential to their well-being, but to 
the greatness and prosperity of our common country, 
we see that those who, without ability or influence, 
have been thrown by the agitations of civil convulsion 
into positions of honor and profit, are striving to keep 
alive the passions to which they owe their elevation. 
And they clamorously insist that they are the only 
friends of our Union — a Union that can only have a 
sure foundation in fraternal regard and a common 
desire to promote the peace, the order and the happi- 
ness of all sections of our land. 



288 LIFE or HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

" Events in Congress since the adjournment of the 
Convention have vastly increased the importance of a 
political victory, by those who are seeking to bring 
back economy, simplicity, and justice in the adminis- 
tration of our national affairs. Many Republicans 
have heretofore clung to their party who have regret- 
ted the extremes of violence to which it has run. Thev 
have cherished a faith that while the action of their 
political friends has been mistaken, their motives have 
been good. They must now see that the Kepublican 
party is in that condition that it cannot carry out a 
wise and peaceful policy, whatever its motives may be. 
It is a misfortune, not only to a country but to a gov- 
erning party itself, when its action is unchecked by any 
form of opposition. It has been the misfortune of the 
Republican party that the events of the past few years 
have given it so much power that it has been able to 
shackle the Executive, to trammel the Judiciary, and 
to carry out the views of the most unwise and violent 
of its members. When this state of things exists in 
any party, it has ever been found that the sober judg- 
ments of its ablest leaders do not control. There is 
hardly an able man who helped to build up the Repub- 
lican organization who has not, within the past three 
years, warned it against its excesses, who has not been 
borne down and forced to give up his convictions of 
what the interests of the country called for : or, if too 
patriotic to do this, who has not been driven from its 
ranks. If this has been the case heretofore, what will 
be its action now with this new infusion of men who, 
without a decent respect for the views of those who 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 289 

had just given them their positions, begin their legisla- 
tive career with calls for arms, with demands that their 
States shall be regarded as in a condition of civil war, 
and with a declaration that they are ready and anxious 
to degrade the President of the United States when- 
ever they can persuade or force Congress to bring for- 
ward new articles of impeachment. 

" The Republican party, as well as we, are interested 
in putting some check upon this violence. It must be 
clear to every thinking man that a division of political 
power tends to check the violence of party action and to 
assure the peace and good order of society. The election 
of a Democratic Executive, and a majority of Democrat- 
ic members to the House of Representatives would not 
give to that party organization the power to make sud- 
den or violent changes, but it Avould serve to check those 
extreme measures which have been deplored by the 
best men of both political organizations. The result 
would most certainly lead to that peaceful restoration 
of the Union and re-establishment of fraternal rela- 
tionship which the country desires. I am sure that the 
best men of the Republican party deplore as deeply as 
I do the spirit of violence shown by those recently ad- 
mitted to seats in Con2:ress from the South. The con- 
dition of civil war which they comtemplate must be 
abhorrent to every right thinking man. 

" I have no mere personal wishes which mislead my 
judgment in regard to the pending election. No man 
who has weio'hed and measured the duties of the office 
of President of the United States, can fail to be im- 
pressed with the cares and toils of him ■\\'ho is to meet 
19 



290 LIFE OF HORATIO SEYMOUR. 

its demands. It is not merely to float with popular 
currents, -svitliout a policy or a purpose. On the con- 
trary, while our Constitution gives just Aveight to the 
public will, its distinguishing feature is that it seeks to 
protect the rights of minorities. Its greatest glory is 
that it puts restraints upon power. It gives force and 
form to those maxims and principles of civil liberty 
for which the martyrs of freedom have struggled 
through ages. It declares the right of the people — 
* to be secure in their persons, houses, and papers 
ao;ainst unreasonable searches and seizures. That 
Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- 
ment of relio-ion or the free exercise thereof, or abrido;- 
ing the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right 
of the people to jDetition for redress of grievances. It 
secures the right of a speedy and public trial by an im- 
partial jury."* 

" No man can rightfully enter upon the duties of the 
Presidential ofiice, unless he is not only willing to carry 
out the wishes of the people expressed in a constitution- 
al way, but is also prepared to stand up for the rights 
of minorities. He must be ready to uphold the free 
exercise of religion. He must denounce measures 
which would wrong personal or home rights, or the 
religious conscience of the humblest citizen of the land. 
He must maintain, without distinction of creed or 
nationality, all the privileges of American citizenship. 

'* The experience of every public man who has been 
faithful to his trust teaches him that no one can do the 
duties of the office of President, unless he is ready not 
onlv to undergo the falsehoods and abuse of the bad, 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 291 

but to suffer from tlie censure of the good who are 
misled by prejudices and misrepresentations. There 
are no attractions in such positions, which deceive my 
judgment, when I say that a great change is going on 
in the pubhc mind. The mass of the Republican party 
are more thoughtful, temperate and just than they 
were during the excitements which attended the pro- 
gress and close of the civil war. As the energy of the 
Democratic party springs from their devotion to their 
cause and not to their candidates, I may with pro- 
priety speak of the fact that never in the political his- 
tory of our country has the action of any like body 
been hailed with such universal and widespread enthu- 
siasm as that which has been shown in relation to the 
position of the National Democratic Convention. 
With this the candidates had nothing to do. Had 
any others of those named been selected, this spirit 
would have been, perhaps, more marked. The zeal 
and energy of the conservative masses spring from a 
desire to make a change of political policy, and from 
the confidence that they can carry out their purpose. 
" In this faith they are strengthened by the co- 
operation of the great body of those who served in 
the Union army and navy during the war. Having 
o;iven nearlv sixteen thousand commissions to the 
officers of that army, I know their views and wishes. 
They deraand the Union for which they fought. The 
larjiest meetimi of these <T;allant soldiers which ever 
assembled was held in New York, and indorsed the 
action of the National Convention, In words in- 
stinct with meaning, they called upon the Govern- 



292 IJFE or HORATIO SEYilOUR. 

merit to stop in its policy of hate, discord and dis- 
union, and in terms of fervid eloquence they demand- 
ed the restoration of the rights and liberties of the 
American people. 

" When there is such accord between those who 
proved themselves brave and self-sacrificing in war, 
and those who are thoughtful and patriotic in coun- 
cil, I cannot doubt we shall gain a political triumph 
which will restore our Union, bring back peace and 
prosperity to our land, and will give us once more 
the blessings of a wise, economical and honest govern- 
ment. 

" I am, gentlemen, truly yours, &c., 

" Horatio Seymour. 
^ To General G. W. Morgan, and others, Commit- 
tee," &c., &c. 



LIFE 

OF 

FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR, JR. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth — Cliildhood — A Favorite with General Jackson — Attends Prince- 
ton College — Studies Law — Removes to St. Louis — Failure of bis 
Health — Uakes a Journey to the Rocky Mountains — Volunteers for 
the Mexican War — His Services during that Struggle — Political Life 
— Supports Mr. Van Buren — Acts with the Republican Party — His 
Opposition to Slavery — Elected to the Legislature — Elected to the 
35th Congress — His Career in Congress — His Plan f >r Relieving the 
Country of the negroes — A Remarkable Speech — The Scheme both 
Wise and Practicable— Speech on the Volunteer Bill — Ojjposes the 
Introduction of Slavery into the Territorie — Free vs. Slave Labor — 
Advocates the Building of the Pacific Railroad 299 

CHAPTER 11. 

Reelected to Congress in 1860 — Advocates the Election of Mr. Lincoln — 
The Secession Troubles — Mr. Blair takes his Position as a Union 
Man — The War — He is the First Union Volunteer — Condition of 
Affairs in Missouri — Services of Mr. Blair — He Raises Troops in St. 
Louis — Assists Capt. Lyon — Removal of the Arms from the Arsenal 
— Capture of Camp Jackson — Interview with Governor Jackson — 
The Capture of Jefferson City — Baitle of Booneville — Gallant Con- 
duct of Colonel Blair — He Leaves for Washington — Effect of his 
Absence — Meeting of Congress in July, 18G1 — Colonel Blair declines 
the Speakership — Is made Chairman of the Military Committee — 
Procures the expulsion of Mr. Clark — Speech on the Battle of Bull 
Run — Defence of the President — Returns to Missouri — Quarrel with 
General Fremont 324 

CHAPTER HI. 

Colonel Blair is Requested to Raise a Brigade in Missouri— Is made Brig- 
adier General — Stationed at Helena, Ark. — Grant's First Campaiga 



296 CONTENTS. 

ngainst Vicksburg — Sherman's Expedition against Chickasaw Bluifs 
— The Landing of the Troops — The Assault of the 29tli of December, 
1862 — Gallant Conduct of General Blair— The Assault a Failure— 
The Capture of Arkansas Post — General Blair made a Major-Gen- 
eral of Volunteers — Assigned the Command of a Divi^ion — His Ser- 
vices in the Vicksburg Campaign — Eejoins Sherman on the Big 
Black — The Investment of Vicksburg — The A-saults of May 19th 
and 22d — Conduct of General Blair — His Reconnoissance towards 
the Big Black — The Second Capture of Jackson, Miss. — Is made 
Sherman's Second in Command — Put in Charge of the Fifteenth 
Army Corps — The March to Chattanooga — The Battles of Missionary 
Eidge — The Pursuit of Bragg — The Eelief of Knoxville — General 
Blair is Deprived of his Command 363 

CHAPTER IV. 

General Blair is Elected to Congress — Decides to be Guided by the Pres- 
ident's Wishes — Letter of Mr. Lincoln — Takes his Seat in the House — 
Sharp Attacks on him — His Bold Reply — Denunciation of the Abuses 
of the Government in the Border States — Denounces the Confisca- 
tion Bill — A Powerful Argument — Draws upon himself the Anger 
and Malice of the Extreme Radicals— They endeavor to Injure his 
Reputation — Charges against him in the House — He Denounces their 
Author as a Liar — Asks for an Investigation, which is Ordered — Is 
Triumphantly Acquitted — Ilis Speech in his own Defence — A Power- 
ful Vindication — Malice of his Enemies — He Leaves the House and 
Returns to the Field — The Radicals try to Deprive him of his Com- 
mand-Resolution in the House — Reply of the President — General 
Blair's Persecutors Defeated 384 

CHAPTER V. 

General Blair Returns to the Field — Is given Command of the Seventeenth 
Corps in Sherman's Army — The Advance to Dalton — Altoona Pass 
— Kennesaw Mountain — The Capture of Atlanta — A Hard Campaign 
—The Pursuit of Hood—" The March to the Sea "—Army Sketch 
of General Blair — Details of the March— The Occupation of Savan- 
nah— Tlie Seventeenth Corps Transferred to Hilton Head— Blair's 
Midwinter March — The Occupation of Columbia — The March through 
the Carolinas — Occupation of Fayetteville — Battle of Bentonville — 
Surrender of General Johnston — The March to Washington — The 
Great Review— General Blair Resigns his Commission 414 



CONTENTS. 297 

CHAPTER VI. 

General Blair Favors a Liberal and Generous Policy towards the South — 
Opposes the Ultra Measures of the Radicals — Denounces the Dis- 
fianchisementLaw of tlie Missouri Legislature — Refuses to Subscribe 
to the Test Oath — Is Refused his Right to Vote— Separates himself 
from the Republican Paity, and Unites with the Democracy — His 
Nomination as C> Hector of Revenue Rejected by the Senate — Is 
Mentioned as a Candidate for the Presidency — Letter to Colonel 
Broadhead — Comments of the Radicals — Statement of the Uerald — 
Speech of Hon. Montgomery Blair — The Convention — General Blair 
a Candidate — Nominated for the Vice-Presidency — Scene in the 
Convention — Formal Tender of the Nomination — Speech of General 
•Morgan — Reply of General Blair — Meeting in 14th Stieet — Speech 
ofjGeneral Blair — His Letter of Acceptance — His Visit to the West 
— His Speech at Omaha — Tribute from the Buffalo Courier 430 



LIFE 



FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth — Childhood — A Favorite with General Jackson— Attends Princeton 
College — Studies Law — Eemoves to St. Louis — Failure of his Health — 
Makes a Journey to the Rocky Mountains — Volunteers for the Mexican 
War — Ilis Services during that Struggle — Political Life — Supports Mr, 
Van Buren — Acts with the Repuhlican Party — His Opposition to 
Slavery — Elected to the Legislature — Elected to the 35th Congress — 
His Career in Congress — His Plan for Relieving the Country of the 
Negroes — A Remarkable Speech — The Scheme both "Wise and Practi- 
cable — Speech on the Volunteer Bill — Opposes the Introduction of 
Slavery into the Territories — Free vs. Slave Labor — Advocates the 
Building of the Pacific Railroad. 

Francis Preston Blair, Jr., was born in the town 
of Lexington, Kentucky, on the 19th of February, 1821. 
He is the son of Francis P. Blair, Sr., at present a 
citizen of the State of Maryland, and a gentleman who 
has filled a distinguished and conspicuous place in the 
political history of the country. Soon after the birth 
of young Frank, Mr. Blair, Sr., removed to Washington 
City, where the childhood of the former was spent. 
Mr. Blair, Sr., was an intimate friend of General Jack- 
son, and was honored with the confidence of the old 
hero to an extent rarely enjoyed by any one, and young 
Frank was a frequent visitor at the White House and 



300 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

a favorite with its distinguished occupant. The boy 
received a careful education at the best schools in the 
District, and as soon as he was prepared, was placed 
in Princeton College, New Jersey, where he graduated 
in his twentieth year with distinction. Keturning to 
Lexington, he studied law, and was admitted to the 
bar, after which he removed to St. Louis, in 1843, 
and began the practice of his profession, in which he 
achieved a rapid and brilliant success. He applied him- 
self so closely to his work that his severe labor began 
to tell on his strong constitution, and in 1845, being 
then in his twenty-fifth year, he made a journey to the 
Rocky Mountains, in company with a party of trappers, 
for the benefit of his health, which was completely re- 
stored by the trip. Keturning to St. Louis, he resumed 
his practice. 

The Mexican War now broke out, and Mr. Blair, 
abandoning the law for a time, was among the first to 
volunteer his services for the defence of the country. 
He served throuo-h the struo-o-le as a lieutenant of 
volunteers, and took part in the expedition to New 
Mexico under Kearney and Doniphan. He gained a 
high reputation for bravery and efficiency in this Avar, 
and gave the first evidences of the military genius 
he has since displayed in such a marked degree. 

After the peace, he returned to St. Louis and 
resumed the practice of his profession. His heredi- 
tary predilection for politics now caused him to enter 
zealously into the Presidential campaign of 1848, in 
which he ardently supported the nomination of Mr. 
Van Buren, the candidate of the Buffido Free Soil, or 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 301 

Hepublican Convention, and vigorously opposed tlie 
extension of Slavery in the Territories. Thencefor- 
ward he always acted in concert with the Republican 
party, the position of the Democracy with regard to 
slavery preventing him from uniting himself with them. 
In 1852 he was elected to the Missouri Legislature, as 
an avowed Free Soiler, representing the county of St. 
Louis, and in 1854 was returned to that body, although 
Thomas H. Benton, the candidate of his party for 
Congress, was defeated. Mr. Blair was for some time 
an editor and writer for the Missouri Democrat, and 
his articles were among the most successful and popu- 
lar published in that journal. 

In the fall of 1856, Mr. Blair was nominated to Con- 
gress by the Republicans of St. Louis, and elected over 
Mr. Kennett, the Democratic candidate who had two 
years previous defeated Colonel Benton. He took his 
seat in the Thirty-fifth Congress, which met on the 7th 
of December 1857, the only Republican from Missouri. 
He took a commanding position in the House from the 
first, and was regarded as one of the ablest and most 
fearless members of that body. He was an uncom- 
promising adversary of the system of slavery, but his 
hostility to the institution, which was founded on high 
principle, did not degenerate into hatred of the 
slaveholders, among whom Avere many of his warni- 
est personal friends. Besides condemning slavery 
upon grounds of morality, he believed it to be an ele- 
ment of weakness not only to the South, but to the 
whole countr}^ and he was anxious to get rid of it by 
all lawful means ; and as a sure way of accomplishing 



302 LIFE OF FRAJ5CIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

this, he was in favor of preventing its extension and 
confinin"- it within its then existinor limits. As a 
means of getting rid of the system, he proposed a plan 
v/hich is set forth in the following Resolution, oifered 
by him in the House of Representatives, on the 14th 
of January, 1858 : 

" Iiesolved, That a select committee, to consist of 
— members, be appointed by the Speaker, with in- 
structions to inquire into the expediency of providing 
for the acquisition of territory either in the Central or 
South American States, to be colonized with colored 
persons from the United States who are now free, or 
who may hereafter become free, and who may be wil- 
ling to settle in such territory as a dependency of the 
United States, with ample guarantees of their personal 
and political rights." 

Mr. Blair addressed the House in support of this 
resolution, in a speech of considerable length and great 
force. We make the following extracts from the 
speech, as it is a full and clear statement of the views 
of its author : 

" It was remarked by a gentleman from Tennessee 
[Mr. Maynard] the other day, on this floor, that he 
had hoped and believed that this question A\ould be 
discussed and disposed of without reference to the sub- 
ject of slavery, because, he said, there were no slaves 
in Central America. The inquiry was made immedi- 
ately, by many around me, ' How long will it be before 
there are slaves there ? ' This inquiry shows, what is 
almost universally felt to be true, that the slavery 
question is at the bottom of this whole movement. 



SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 303 

There is a party in this country who go for the exten- 
sion of slavery ; and these predatory incursions against 
our neighbors are the means by which territory is to be 
seized, planted with slavery, annexed to this Union, 
and, in combination with the present slaveholding 
States, made to dominate this Government, and the 
entire continent ; or, failing in the policy of annexa- 
tion, to unite with the slave States in a southern slave- 
holding E/Cpublic. I believe that there are those who 
entertain such a purpose. I am opposed to the whole 
scheme, and to every part of it ; and, in order to op- 
pose it successfully, I think we should recur to the 
plans cherished by the great men who founded this 
Republic. I think we ought to put it out of the power 
of any body of men to plant slavery anywhere on this 
continent, by taking immediate steps to give to all of 
these countries that require it, and especially to the 
Central American States, the power to sustain free 
institutions under stable governments ; and, as one 
method of doing this, we might plant those countries 
with a class of men who are worse than useless to us, 
who would prove themselves to be of immense advan- 
tao;e to those countries, who would attract the wealth 
and energy of our best men to aid and direct them in 
developing the incredible riches of those regions, and 
thus open them to our commerce, and the commerce of 
the whole world. I refer to our enfranchised slaves, all 
of that class who would willingly embrace the offer to 
form themselves into a colony under the protection of 
our flag, and the guarantee of the Republic of every 
personal and political right necessary to their safety 
and prosperity. 



30-1 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

*"• What I propose is not new ; it is bottomed on the 
reasonino- and recommendation of Mr. Jefferson. 

o 

Speaking of a proposition, similar in many respects, 
uro^ed by him upon the Legislature of his native State, 
he says : 

' It was, Jiowever, found that the public mind 
■would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear it 
even at this day ; yet the day is not far distant when 
it must bear it, and adopt it, or worse will follow. 
Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, 
than that these people (the negroes) are to be free ; nor 
is it less certain that the two races, equally free, can- 
not live in the same Government. Nature, habit, 
opinion, have drawn indelible lines of distinction be- 
tween them. It is still in our power to direct the pro- 
cess of EMAI^CIPATION AND DEPORTATION", and in SUcll 

slow degree as that the evil will wear off insensibly, 
and their place he. pari ]jassu filled up by free white 
laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself 
on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held 
up. We should in vain look for an example in the 
Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors.' 

. " The time has ripened for the execution of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's plan. By adopting it, we may relieve our- 
selves of a people who are a burden to us ; give to 
them an amount of happiness and comfort they can 
never realize here, -where they are treated as a degraded 
class ; reinvigorate the feeble people of the southern 
E,e publics, and open up to the enterprise of our mer- 
chants the untold wealth of the intertropical region, 
containing a greater amount of productive land than 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 305 

all the balance of the continent ; put a stop to the 
African slave trade, which is created and kept up by 
the demand for tropical productions ; by supplying 
that demand by the labor of the only class of freemen 
capable of exertion in that climate. I make this prop- 
osition to meet, oppose, and defeat that which seeks 
by violence to re-establish slavery, reopen the African 
slave trade, subject those regions, in Walker's own 
language, "to military rule^'" and exclude from them 
the people of the northern States. I shall discuss and 
compare these propositions as fully as the time limited 
will allow me. 

" Mr. Randolph, in one of his most celebrated 
speeches in the Senate, addressing himself to Mr. Cal- 
houn, said : 

' Sir, I know there are gentlemen, not only from 
the southern, but the northern States, who think that 
this unhappy question — for such it is — of negro sla- 
very, which the Constitution has vainly attemj^ted to 
blink by not using the term, should never be brought 
into public notice, more especially into that of Con- 
gress, and most especially here. Sir, with every due 
respect for the gentlemen who think so, I differ with 
them toto cctlo. Sir, it is a tiling which cannot be 
hid. It is not a dry rot that you can cover with a 
carpet until the house tumbles about your ears.. You 
might as well try to hide a volcano in full operation. 
It cannot be hid ; it is a cancer on your face, and must 
not be tampered with by quacks, who never saw the 
disease or the patient, and prescribe across tlie Atlantic. 
It must be, if you will, let alone. 
20 



306 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

* But no, sir ; the politico-religious quacks, like the 
quack in medicine and in everything else, will hear of 
nothino; but his nostrum ; all is to be forced — nothino; 
can be trusted to time or to nature. The disease has 
run its course; it has run its course in the northern 
States, it is beginning to run its course in Maryland. 
The natural death of slavery is the unprofitableness 
of its most expensive labor. It is also beginning in 
the meadow and grain country of Virginia — among 
those people there who have no staple that can pay for 
slave labor.' 

" He then points his conclusion in a way to make 
it stick in the memories of the masters of slaves, to 
whom he addressed himself: 

' The moment the labor of the slave ceases to be 
profitable to the master, or very soon after it has reached 
that stage, if the slave ivill not run away from the mas- 
ter^ the master loill run away from the slave.'' 

"Mr. Chairman, I am Mr. Randolph's proselyte; 
he was no Abolitionist, although aware that slavery 
was sapping the very foundations of the free institu- 
tions of his country — a cancer on the face, which, un- 
less removed, would eat into the vitals of the E-epub- 
lic. I concur in his opinion, that the master must run 
away from his slaves, unless they run aAvay from him. 
Unhappily for the slave States, many of their enter- 
prising young men leave their native land for those 
States where individual ability and exertion are suffi- 
cient to confer wealth and eminence ; and all of that 
oppressed class who are compelled to labor with their 
naked hands, and struggle for existence in competition 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 307 

with the monopolizing slave power that holds the soil, 
and bands together, by a common interest, the capital, 
the intelligence, and influence of the order controlling 
the government of the Commonwealth to make it par- 
amount, would also fly, if they had the means of flight, 
or a spot on earth they could call their own to receive 
them. Although the time has not yet come when the 
masters are ready to run away from their slaves, it 
will doubtless come, if ever that great mass of freemen 
who feel the weight of the institution pressing them 
to the earth, should have the means of reaching home- 
steads in happier regions, where their labor might 
render them independent. Can any condition be more 
lamentable for a State than that which makes it the 
obvious interest of the mass of its free population to 
abandon it? and if poverty prevents this desertion, 
the cause of detention, constantly increasing, must in 
the end grow into a frightful calamity. 

" Every statesman who has looked into the condi- 
tion of the slave States, has always found it full of 
difficulties. Mr. Randolph's solution does not end 
them, unless we go a step further. Where would the 
slaves go if they could run away ? The North may 
receive an absconding straggler here and there, but 
what States would receive five million of slaves ? or 
hoAv would the runaways be anywhere provided for? 
The free States which have put an interdict, so far 
away as remote Oregon, upon the admission of free 
blacks, even in the stinted number which might come 
from the limited emancipation permitted in the South, 
would hardly receive millions upon a general jail de- 



308 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

livery. Nor can the masters run away from tlieii 
slaves, unless the North is ready to become a St. Do- 
mingo ; nor emancipate them en masse without mak- 
ing it a St. Domingo." 

:I: * :;■; .'I: Hs ♦ 

"Mr. Chairman, there is nothing in the compar- 
ative progress of the slave and free States, since the 
illustrious patriots of Virginia, in the last and most 
solemn act of their lives, bore their testimony against 
the institution which now convulses the Confederacy, 
tending to condemn their policy. There is much in 
the aspect now given to our affairs by that fatal 
element, against which their forecast gave warning, to 
prove that their solicitude to remove it had its root in 
that sound judgment and devoted love to the country, 
which made the strongest features of their characters. 
One great difficulty obstructed these efforts. Emanci- 
pation was easy, but the amalgamation of the white 
and black races was abhorrent, and their existence as 
equals, under the same Government, was for that 
reason impossible. They were, nevertheless, resolved 
to make the experiment of the gradual abolition of 
slavery, hoping that time would make some outlet to 
the deojraded caste. I believe the existino^ circum- 
stances on this continent now justify that hope. The 
attempt of African colonization, to relieve us of the 
load, has failed. The immense distance, and the bar- 
barous state of the mother country, to which we would 
restore its improved race that has arisen among us, has 
paralyzed all the efforts of the benevolent society that 
has labored so long in vain to form a commimity in 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 309 

Liberia which would draw hence its kindred emanci- 
pated population, and establish a nation there to spread 
civilization and religion over Africa. Time has shown 
that the causes which have produced races, never to 
improve Africa, or to be improved there, but to aban- 
don it and give their vigor and derive their advance- 
ment in other climes, are not to be reversed by the 
best efforts of the best of men. ' Westward the star 
of empire takes its way,' is a prophesy which will find 
its accomplishment within the tropics as w^ell as out- 
side of them on this continent. Liberty and security 
promote enterprise and industry, and so create that 
intellio;ence which brino-s in its train civilization and 
Christianity. Africa is a desert, in whicli every effort 
to propagate the elements which lead to such results 
have proved failures ; and for ages Africa has ever 
been ' the house of bondage.' 

"As Americans, it is our first interest to take care 
of this continent, and provide for the races on whose 
faculties and labor its advancement depends. In my 
opinion, the door is now open in Central America to 
receive the enfranchised colored race born amono-st us, 
and which has received, with our lano;uao;e and the 
habits contracted under our institutions, much that 
adapts it to sustain a part in giving stability to the in- 
stitutions copied from ours in the Central American 
Republics." * * * * 

Mr. Blair then declared that it was the intention 
of the Pro-Slavery party to force slavery upon Central 
America, and that President Buchanan had lent him- 
self to the scheme. Said he : 



310 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

"The purpose of subjecting Central America to 
slavery has been boldly proclaimed ; and the opening 
of the African slave trade is relied upon to fill up the 
void in the laboring population which must be made 
by the war and the expulsion of dangerous classes. Is 
it not a degradation of the nation which stands on this 
continent as the first asserter of its freedom and inde- 
pendence, and the great exemplar of popular sove- 
reignty in the world, to have a Chief Magistrate and 
controlling councils harboring designs which they dare 
not avow, and seeking by sly intrigues to involve it in 
a war, to accomplish schemes which the people would 
spurn with disgust, if promulgated before they became 
committed in the conflict ? I have no doubt my coun- 
trymen would regard with just indignation, and resist 
an attempt by England to turn our flank on the Gulf 
of Mexico. That she spreads her dominion across 
this continent, from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to 
Vancouvers Island on the Pacific, bringing its pres- 
sure to bear upon our whole northern frontier, is as 
much constraint as can be endured. The nation would 
be willing to close this century as it began — in hostility 
with England — rather than to submit to encroachment 
in our southern quarter. For this reason our Govern- 
ment insisted that Great Britain should abandon the 
assumed protectorate claimed over the coasts of Cen- 
tral America. She relinquished it ; but she stipulated 
with Honduras that the subjects left by her in the Bay 
Islands should continue to enjoy the free institutions 
which she had planted there. Our own citizen, Mr. 
^yells, looking to the establishment of our influence 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 311 

through our institutions in this quarter, hails this step 
as Hhe estahlishment in Central America of lieinibli- 
can institutions^ irhich are not to he overthroivn at the 
caprice of temporary rnlej^s.^ 

" Can Mr. Buchanan summon hardihood to involve 
this country in a war to expel the freedom guarantied 
to the Bay Islands by the treaty made with the dicta- 
tor Guardiola, and subject them to his absolute author- 
ity? I would rather hope that our Government, if 
not now, may j'et, under another Presidency, extend 
its influence over the mainland of Central America, 
by giving its support to maintain Governments there 
based upon its own republican principles. To do this, 
we must, like England in the case of the Bay Islands, 
send our people into the country^ p)rotect our merchants 
in. their enterprises there, a7id make an honest demon- 
stration of the fixed p)y'>pose of our Government to build 
up the prosperity of Centred America for its oum and 

our advantage.'''' » 

* * * * * * 

He avowed his belief that the only permanent and 
peaceful solution of the negro question lay in colon- 
izing them in some other country — a suggestion richly 
worth the consideration of our people at the present 
day. He said, in support of this proposition : 

" Mr. Chairman, it is evident to every man of 
thought that the freed blacks hold a place in this 
country which cannot be maintained. Those who 
have fled to the North are most unwelcome visitors. 
The strong repugnance of the free white laborer to be 
yoked -with the negro refugee breeds an enmity between 



312 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

races, which must end in the expulsion of the latter 
Centuries could not reconcile the Spaniards to the 
Moors ; and although the latter were the most useful 
people in Spain, their expulsion was the only way to 
peace. In spite of all that reason or religion can urge, 
nature has put a badge upon the African, making 
amalijamation revoltino; to our race. Centuries have 
shown that even the aboriginal race of this continent, 
although approaching our species in every respect more 
nearly, perish from contiguity with the wdiite man. 
But I will not argue the point. The law of the North 
has put its ban upon immigration of negroes into the 
free States. 

" In the South, causes more potent still make it im- 
possible that the emancipated blacks can remain there. 
The multiplication of slaves and freed men of the same 
caste in the section where the dominant race must 
become proportionately fewer from emigration, has 
already compelled the latter to prohibit emancipation 
■within the States, and to seek means of deliverance 
from the free blacks. The Northern States will not 
receive them ; the Southern States dare not retain 
them. What is to be done ? "What was done with 
the native population which it was found incompatible 
with the interests of Georgia and the States southwest 
of the Ohio, and the States northwest, to indulge with 
homes within their limits ? The United States held it 
to be a national duty to purchase their lands from 
them, acquire homes for them in other regions, and to 
hold out inducements and provide the means for their 
removal to them. Have not the negroes, born on our 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 313 

soil, who have grown up among us, and although fated 
to be a burden and obstruction to our progress — yet 
always in amity and laboring to render service — equal 
claims upon us with the savages, against whom we 
have had to fight our way for centuries, resisting all 
attempts to bring them within the pale of civilization ? 
" The President, in his late message, proposes to 
gather these savages in colonies, and at an early day 
raise them to the dignity of forming States, and 
assuming equality with the States of the Union. The 
Africans, bred and educated within civilized commu- 
nities, who speak our language, are listeners at our 
canvasses, lookers-on at the elections, worshipers in 
our churches, and constantly witness the processes of 
improvement in our society, in the field, the workshop, 
and every domestic scene — one would think quite as 
capable of being disciplined in colonies, and fitted to 
take part in the Government of the Union as the 
Shawnees, Pottawatomies, Winnebagoes, the Sacs and 
Foxes, removed from the northwest, or the Cherokees, 
Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, from the southwest. 
As far as respects the Sioux, Pawnees, Cheyennes, 
Utahs, Camanches, and Blackfeet, the President might 
have spared his recommendation until they are caught. 
I believe the people who constitute this Confederacy 
will forever scout the idea of blending either Lidian or 
negro States with it. The aboriginal or imported tribes 
which cannot amalgamate with our race, can never 
share in its Government in equal sovereignties. In the 
benevolent design of colonizing the Indians, protecting 
and aiding their efforts to gain a subsistence by culti- 



314 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

vating the soil set apart for them, I most heartily con 
cur ; but I think, wliatever form of society they may 
assume, they must always be held as dependencies — 
not upon the footing of equality with the States. 

"And ought not the Government to be equally 
provident for such portions of the unfortunate race 
born to slavery, but who, having attained freedom, find 
that it renders them a burden to those among whom 
they live — a burden that will not be borne ? This is 
the question which absolute necessity now forces on the 
consideration of the country — one deeply affecting 
the interests and feelings of slaveholders and non-slave- 
holders of the superior race, and of more than half a 
million already ilianumitted inferiors pressed down by 
their weight." 

The Liberal party of Central America, he said, 
would gladly Avelcome those negroes who -would settle 
among them ; and he urged upon the House that such 
a colonization would increase and strengthen the influ- 
ence of the United States in Central America more 
than anything else could, and declared that it was far 
wiser and honester to plant our influence in that 
country in such a way, than to encourage such expedi- 
tions as Walker's. Near the close of the speech, he 
said : 

" In my opinion, the propagation of slavery can 
only be successfully resisted by the propagation of free- 
dom. It is this mission, arrogated by Great Britain 
as peculiarly hers, which has conferred on her the pre- 
ponderance she holds in almost every portion of the 
earth. She has swayed it with an iron hand, but 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 315 

everywhere of late years Anglo-Saxon justice, civili- 
zation, and Christianity, wherever they 2:»revailed, have 
allowed every man to feel the comfort of laboring for 
himself, and he has labored all the better for his country. 

" Great Britain has her hands full in Christianizing, 
civilizing, and improving, for commercial usefulness, the 
old continents. She must leave to us the regeneration 
of the new one ; and this I find, from a paper in a late 
Westminster Review, marked by the editor with an 
unusual notification ascribing it to ' cm able and dis- 
tinguished contrihutoi'^ seems to be the opinion of some 
of the great men of England. This eloquent writer, 
describmg the missions of what he calls ' the four 
Empires,' Kussia, France, Great Britain, and the 
United States, assigns its office to the latter in the 
following passage : 

' And it may once for all be assumed that the 
human race, whatever Cabinets or Parliaments may 
think of it, will not be driven from their inevitable 
course. The work which has begun so largely will go 
forward. The Asiatic independence which survives 
will narrow down and grow feebler, and at last die. 
The will and the intellect of the more advanced races 
will rule in due time over that whole continent. The 
genius of France will follow the shores of the Mediterra- 
nean ; the line of kingdoms which divides the empires 
of England and Bussia will grow thinner, till their 
frontiers touch. In spite of Cla}'ton-Bul\vcr treaties, 
and Dallas-Clarendon interpretations of them, the 
United States will stretch their shadow ever further 
south. Revolution will cease to tear the empire of 



316 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Montezuma, The failing Republics of Central Ame- 
rica will not forever be a temptation, by tlieir weak- 
ness, to the attacks of lawless ruffians. The valley of 
the mighty Amazon, which would grow corn enough to 
feed a thousand million mouths, must fall at last to 
those ^vho will force it to yield its treasures. The 
ships which carry the commerce of America into the 
Pacific, carry, too, American justice and American 
cannon as the preachers of it. The Emperor of Japan 
supposed, that by Divine right, doing as he would 
with his own, he might close his country against his 
kind ; that when vessels in distress were driven into 
his port, he might seize their crews as slaves, or kill 
them as unlicensed trespassers. An armed squadron, 
with the star-spangled banner flying, found its way 
into the Japan waters, and his serene Majesty was in- 
structed that in nature's statute-book there is no ri2;ht 
conferred on any man to act unrighteously, because it 
is his pleasure; that in their o^vn time and by their own 
means, the upper powers will compel him, whether he 
pleases or not, to bring his customs in conformity with 
wiser usage.' 

" The starting-point in this new career, is the re- 
sumption of the progress which received its impulse in 
the revolution tending to the deliverance of the Avhite 
laboring class of this country from the superincumbent 
weight of African slavcr3\ This redemption of our 
own race from its vassalage under slavery has been 
brought to a stand-still, and six millions of our free 
white kindred endure deprivation, corporeal and intel- 
lectual, from the slave occupation of the soil and of 



SPEECH ON THE NEGRO QUESTION. 317 

the pursuits which would add to their means of living 
and their sources of mental improvement. Neither 
the slave owners, nor the slave States, are responsible 
for the arrest of the enfranchisement which promised 
blessings to the toilers of both races. For, whether as 
a slave or free man, the presence of multitudes of the 
black race is found to be fatal to the interests of our 
race : their antagonism is as strong as that of oil and 
water, and so lono; as no convenient outlet, through 
which the manumitted slave can reach a congenial cli- 
mate and country willing to receive him, is afforded, 
the institution of slavery stands on compulsion. But 
let me suppose Central America — tempting in gold 
and every production of the tropical soil to stimulate 
exertion, with a climate innoxious only to the black 
man — were opened up to him, under circumstances to 
advance him in the scale of humanity, how long before 
masters in all the temperate slave States would make 
compositions to liberate them on terms that would in- 
demnify them for transplantation ? Hundreds of 
more benevolent owners would, from a sense of public 
good and for conscience sake, by wills, or by deeds of 
emancipation, make this deliverance, if the General 
Government would take the cliarge of the deportation 
to the region it might acquire for them — a gradual and 
voluntary emancipation by individuals, if not by States, 
would thus in time be accomplished. I hold that it is 
the duty of the nation to offer this boon to slavehol- 
ders and to the slave States to enable them to have 
complete control of the subject, which is the source of 
so much anxiety and mischief to them." 



318 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

This speech attracted great attention throughout 
the country, and there are to-day many who agree with 
its author that the plan proposed by him was and is 
still both wise and practicable. 

On the 16th of March, 1858, Mr. Blair introduced 
a bill making an appropriation for the improvement 
of the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Arkansas 
Rivers by contract, which was read a first and second 
time, and referred to the Committee on Commerce. 

On the 18th of March, 1858, the House hai-ing 
under consideration the bill for raising additional vol- 
unteer regiments, Mr. Blair addressed the House at 
some length in support of the bill, showing that the 
Government was in absolute need of a more efficient 
force for the protection of the distant Territories. He 
made a clear and forcible exposition of the outrages 
of the Mormons upon the "Gentile" settlers in Utah; 
of their bitter and rebellious hostility to the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the Union ; and of the audacity with 
which they assumed to dictate terms to the Govern- 
ment. He said, in conclusion : 

" Now, Mr. Speaker, I think it is due to the exi- 
gency that we should at least place these troojDS at the 
disposal of the President, so that if there should arise 
any emergency in Utah, requiring the troops, he may 
have them. * * * 

" I know of no difficulty — none at all — on the 

subject of the power of the President to move the 

^Army into the Territories of this Government. Nor 

have I difficulties about the power of this Government 

over the Territories ; and I trust that if no other good 



SPEECH ON THE VOLUNTEER BILL. 319 

thing comes out of this unfortunate affair — so to char- 
acterize it — it will give the last and fatal blow to that 
heresy of Squatter Sovereignty that has grown up in 
this land. I am one of those who believe as strongly 
in the doctrine of popular sovereignty as any man on 
this floor ; but it is the sovereignty of the whole people 
of the country in regard to their Territories. It is the 
right of the people of the country to govern w^hat 
belongs to them ; and I say it is rank cowardice to 
abdicate a power conferred on Congress by the Con- 
stitution, to shirk it off upon the first two or three 
hundred individuals that may reach a Ten'itory to be 
organized by this Government. * * '■' '^ 

"I shall therefore vote for the bill to place five reg- 
iments of volunteers at the disposal of the President, 
but I will not, under any consideration, vote to add a 
single man to the Regular Army." 

On the 23d of March, 1858, Mr. Blair addressed 
the House in opposition to the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion of Kansas, and in behalf of free labor in that 
Territory. His speech was able and forcible, and at- 
tracted considerable attention at the time. Near the 
close of his remarks, he said : 

"The oligarchy say they have the right to take their 
Slaves into the Territories of the Union. * * They 
demand that they shall be allowed to put their slaves 
to work side by side with mechanics and laborers, and, 
in the same breath, they claim that no slave shall be 
allowed to degrade the emplo}'ments in which they 
condescend to engage. I contend that they have no 
more right to inflict this degradation on mechanics, by 



320 LIFE or FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JE. 

placing slave labor in competition with their free labor 
Not a -whit more ; and, as tliey exercise the right of 
excluding slaves from the professions in which they 
are themselves engaged, (as they do by inhibiting 
their education,) I say they admit the right of others 
to exclude them from the mechanical trades, and from 
competition with every freeman who follows an honest 
calling. 

" There was a time when this Democratic party 
was not Democratic in name alone. There was a time 
when this party took ground against privileged classes, 
and against every attempt on the part of Capitalists to 
usurp the power of this Government, and pervert it to 
their own purposes. I instance the case of the United 
States Bank, where the Stockholders undertook to 
force this Government to allow them to bank on the 
national revenue, the Democratic party took issue with 
them, and put them down. Since that time we have 
had the tariff discussion, where the manufacturing in- 
terests of the country — a vast aggregation of AAcalth — 
undertook to influence legislation, and effect the pass- 
age of laws for their especial benefit, in derogation of 
the rio-hts and interests of the workino; classes of the 
country, the Democratic party took ground against the 
high protective tariff, and defeated it. 

" And now here is another question in which this 
struggle between capital and labor is presented in its 
most odious and revolting form. Here is a colossal 
aggregation of wealth invested in negroes, which un- 
dertakes to seize this Government to pervert it to its 
own purpose, and to prevent the freemen of the coun- 



SPEECH ON KANSAS AFFAIRS. 321 

try from entering the Territories except in competition 
with slave labor ; and the Democratic party, instead 
of standing where it used to stand, in opposition to 
these Anti-Democratic measures, is as servile a tool of 
the oligarchy as are the negro slaves themselves. 

" This is no question between North and South. 
It is a question between those who contend for caste 
and privilege, and those who neither have nor desire 
to have, privileges beyond their fellows. It is the old 
question that has always in all free countries, subsisted 
— the question of the wealthy and the crafty few en- 
deavoring to steal from the masses of the people all 
the political power of the Government. These gentle- 
men are wrong who say that it is a question of North 
and South. If there is one class of people on this 
Continent more interested than another in putting a 
stop to the extension of slavery in the Territories, it is 
the free white laborers of the South. They have in- 
finitely more interest in the matter than any other 
class of the people, because they have felt the pressure 
of the institution. They have been shut out from all 
ownership in the soil, and driven out of all employment 
in the States where Slavery now exists ; and should 
we allow the Territories of the Government to be 
closed against them, they will have no escape from the 
oppression which has ground them to the dust. No. 
Sir, it is not a question between the North and South. 
It is a question which commends itself especially to 
the non-slaveholding and laboring white men of the 
South. 

"Now, Sir, this controversy Avill, in my opinion, 
21 



322 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

end in great good. In the struggle which terminated 
the American Bevolution, the principles of liberty 
were so deeply instilled in the heart of the people, that 
when that struggle ended, the slaves were emancipated 
in a large number of the States, from the impulse 
which the love of liberty received in that contest. 
This struggle, which is on the same principle, will 
terminate in the same way. I know that there are as 
good men in the South now as there were in the days 
of the Revolution. There are men — slaveholders — 
now there who burn to emulate the noble examples of 
the illustrious men of the Revolution ; and the noble 
State which I have the honor, in part, to represent on 
this floor, will, in my opinion, have the glory of lead- 
ing the way in this magnanimous career. Her honor 
and interest alike beckon her, and that she will not be 
insensible to these high motives, nor regardless of the 
glorious destiny which awaits her, the legend which 
she bears upon her shield, ' Salus popiiU suprema lex 
e-sto,'' sufficiently attests."" 

The scheme for the construction of a railroad from 
the Missouri to the Pacific found an early and true 
friend in him. His knowledge of the "West taught 
him that such a system of communication was the only 
means of building up the great West, and maintaining 
the influence and power of the Government over the 
Pacific Coast. He also gave his sujDport to the mea- 
sures looking to the establishment of the " 0\'erland 
Mail " route, usinjr his influence in favor of it, both in 
public and private. On the 25th of May, 1858, he 
addressed the House in favor of the Pacific Raih'oad 



REELECTION TO CONGRESS. 323 

bill, arguing in behalf of the central route, which he 
deemed the most practicable. His speech was a clear 
statement of the scheme, and of the necessity for, and 
advantages of, the proposed system of communication 
with the Pacific. He was listened to with marked at- 
tention, and made a decided impression upon his 
hearers. 

Mr. Blair was regularly returned to Congress in 
1858 and 1860, and during the memorable sessions of 
the Thirty-Sixth Congress maintained the reputation 
won by him during his first session. 



CHAPTER II. 

Reelected to Congress in 1860 — Advocates the Election of Mr. Lincoln— 
The Secession Troubles — Mr. Blair takes his Position as a Union 
Man — The War — He is the First Union Volunteer — Condition of 
Affairs in Missouri — Services of Mr. Blair — He Raises Troops in St. 
Louis — Assists Capt. Lyon — Removal of the Arms from the Arsenal 
— Capture of Camp Jackson — Interview with Governor Jackson — 
The Capture of Jefferson City — Battle of Booneville — Gallant Con- 
duct of Colonel Blair — He Leaves for Washington — Effect of his 
Absence — Meeting of Congress in July, 1861 — Colonel Blair declines 
the Speakership — Is made Chairman of the Military Committee — 

• Procures the expulsion of Mr. Clark — Speech on the Battle of Bull 
Run — Defence of the President — Returns to Missouri — Quarrel with 
General Fremont. 

In 1860 Mr. Blair contested the seat of Mr. Barrett, 
from the St. Louis district. 

He was successful in this eiFort, after which he 
resigned his seat. An election was held in the summer 
of 1860, to fill the vacancy, at which Mr. Blair, through 
an unfairness in counting the vote, was defeated. This 
election was to fill the vacancy in the unexpired term. 
Mr. Blair was a candidate aofain at the reo-ular election 
in Novero.ber, and was elected by a large majorit}'^. 

The Republican party had nominated Mr. Lincoln 
for the Presidency, and in the canvass of 1860, Mr. 
Blair warmly supported this nomination. This party 
in Missouri did not number over twenty thousand men, 
but it had the advantage of being determined in its 
efforts, compact, and perfectly harmonious. It was 



POSITION OF MR. BLAIR. 325 

thoroughly hated by the Southern men of the State, 
and won its advantages only by the most energetic 
and persistent efforts. 

" The leading spirit and chief adviser of the Re- 
publicans in 18G0 and 1861," says Col. Peckham, in 
his valuable biography of Gen. Lyon, "was Frank 
Preston Blair, Jr., who, in the canvass of 1856, had 
whispered the magic word emancipation. No history 
of Missouri in the momentous crisis of 1861 can pos- 
sibly be complete without having that name stamped 
upon its pages in characters of splendid coloring. 
Himself a Southerner, cmd a slaveholder, the stereo- 
tj^ped cry of ' Yankee prejudice,' ' New England edu- 
cation,' and ' negro equality ' could not be raised 
against him in efforts to intensify passion and excite 
hate. His own personal courage and coolness silenced 
the pretensions of the insolent, and forced opponents 
from the employment of abuse into the arena of debate^ 
and there, before his exhaustive arguments and array 
of facts, the mailed squires of slavery were speedily 
unhorsed. Even in his personal intercourse with op- 
posing partisans, in whose breasts were lurking the 
twin-passions of hate and fear, he exhibited not only 
the courteousness of an affable gentleman, but an 
equanimity of temperament and apparent forgetfulness 
really wonderful. The antagonist who expected at the 
first meetmg a rupture, because of bitter attacks made 
upon Mr. Blair in recent speeches, was surprised, in 
passing, at the placid countenance and nonchalance of 
manner of his political foe. This power over self, made 
Mr. Blair powerful with others. Serving a great cause 



32G LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

ill the interests of humanity, warring against an insti- 
tution deep-seated in the hearts and purposes of a 
powerful class, he knew exactly the work before him, 
and the depths he would necessarily stir into fermen- 
tation. He made it his jDurpose to disregard passion, 
to answer declamation with argument, and to act in 
self-defence against ruffianly attacks. His example 
was infused into his partisans. The effect was visible 
in the rapidly increasing growth of the Republican 
brotherhood and the permanent radiancy of the Re- 
publican idea." * 

Mr. Blair spoke frequently in various parts of 
Missouri in behalf of Mr. Lincoln, his speeches being 
justly considered the ablest and most forcible delivered 
in the State. His ability and earnestness drew upon 
him from the first the hostility of the pro-Slavery men, 
and he was frequently interrupted in his sj)eeches, and 
the meetings he addressed broken up by mobs sympa- 
thizing with the opposition. In order to put a stop 
to such demonstrations, the Republicans organized 
clubs of " Wide Awakes," whose duty it was to pre- 
serve order at their public meetings and protect the 
speaker. Detachments of these clubs sometimes ac- 



* The author is indebted to Col. Peckhara for the assistance kindly 
furnished by him. His General Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 18CA, 
has been the guide and authority for the statements of this narrative 
concerning Gen. Blair's services in Missouri, and the reader is referred 
to tliat valuable work for a more perfect account of those services. 

The author's thanks are especially due to Major Arden R. Smith, of 
St. Louis, private secretary to Gen. Blair, for much valuable information 
furnished him, which has contributed iu no slight degree to the task of 
preparing this work. 



THE SECESSION TROUBLES. 327 

companied Mr. Blair in his visits to the interior, and 
compelled his opponents to let him speak without mo- 
lestation. 

Mr. Lincoln having been elected to the. Presidency 
in November, 1860, his election was made the occasion 
of a withdrawal of the Southern States from the Union. 
It is not my purpose to discuss the secession troubles, 
or the causes which led to them — the reader being 
familiar with them — but simply to relate that portion 
of them with which the subject of this memoir was 
associated. 

The Missouri Legislature met on the 31st of De- 
cember, 18 GO. Political feeling ran very high at the 
time, and it was found upon the assembling of the 
Legislature, that a majority of that body were undis- 
guised friends of the South. The Governor and Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, and two-thirds of the State officers 
were Southern sympathizers, and the Union men con- 
cerned in the government of the Commonwealth were 
in a decided minority. Conscious of their power, the- 
Secessionists in the two Houses of the Legislature 
prepared a series of measures for placing themselves 
in unlimited control of the State, for the purpose of 
uniting the destinies of Missouri with those of the 
South in case of a war between the two sections. 

" The only real friends " — says Colonel Peckham, 
" those who were kno^^^l as unconditionally such — of 
the Union, in St. Louis, in January, 1861, were the 
Pepublicans. Tliey were called Blair-men, and the 
party hate of years was still cherished for their leader- 
It required the utmost prudence and skilful manage- 



328 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

ment on the part of Mr. Blair to break down this 
prejudice in the minds of many and induce them to 
cooperate with him in patriotic effort. This he suc- 
ceeded in doing to quite an extent, and prepared the 
way for success at the February polls." * 

In view of the strength and determination mani- 
fested by the Secessionists, Mr. Blair, who was by com- 
mon consent regarded as the head of the Union party 
in Missouri, advised his friends to revive the " Wide 
Awake " organizations which had been disbanded after 
the Presidential election in 1860. This advice was 
promptly acted upon, and by the middle of January, 
1861, the "Wide Awakes" were formally reorganized 
into a Union club. All Union men were invited to 
join this club, but very few outside the Republican 
party responded to the invitation. 

There were many persons in Missouri, as elsewhere, 
who believed that the troubles would pass by, and the 
country return to its old condition of peace ; but Mr. 
Blair was not amono; the number. He read the sioris 
of the times more clearly, and his judgment convinced 
him that the war was inevitable. He had reliable 
information that the Southern men of the State were 
secretly preparing to follow the example of the people 
of the far South, and he knew that if the Union men 
of Missouri would keep the State true to the Union 
they must prepare to meet force with force. Though 
he believed the Southern leaders to be misguided and 
wrong in their views and designs, he knew them to be 
brave, resolute, and capable, and this knowledge 

* Gen. Kathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861, p. 30. 



MR. BLAIR ORGANIZES THE UNIONISTS. 329 

caused him to resolve that nothing should be left un- 
done to baffle them. He at once called together the 
most influential members of the Union party in St. 
Louis, and in secret meetings explained to them the 
necessity for prompt action on their part. As the 
Southern men were organizing and arming secretly, he 
declared the Union men must do the same. After 
some hesitation, it was decided to act upon this advice, 
and a military organization was formed and prepara- 
tions made for a secret drill. Mr. Blair undertook to 
raise the first company, which was done secretly and 
promptly, and of this company he was the first volun- 
teer and was elected captain. His company numbered 
seventy-three men, officers included. His example 
was at once followed by others, and in a short time 
the Union force of St. Louis, thus secretly organized, 
numbered eleven companies. In order to have a com- 
mon head for this organization, Mr. Blair was elected 
its colonel ; and by his advice a Committee of Safety, 
consisting of five of the leading Bepublicans of the city, 
was appointed to look after the interests of the Union 
men of St. Louis. Besides forming the military force, 
the Union men constituted themselves an "inside oro;an- 
ization," of which Mr. Blair was elected President. 
The military force was for active service in case of 
necessity ; the " inside organization " was charged with 
the duty of controlling that force and providing for 
whatever emergency might arise. The meetings and 
drills were conducted with the utmost secrecy, in order 
that the Secessionists might not lean; of them. The 
floors of the drill-rooms were strewn with sawdust to 



330 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

deaden the tramp of the men, and the places them- 
selves were strongly guarded to prevent surprise. Pass- 
words and signs by which members could know each 
other and gain access to their meetings, were adopted; 
and the whole system carried on with such success that 
it was not even suspected by the uninitiated. As the 
time passed on, the organization was extended by the 
rajDid enlistment of new members. 

The organization having been effected, it was neces- 
sary to provide the men with arms. There was con- 
siderable difficulty in the way of this, as the purchase 
and distribution of the arms would have to be made in 
secret, but Mr, Blair resolved that the effort should at 
least be made. The Southern men had set detectives 
to watch the movements of the Republicans, and it 
was necessary to act with the utmost caution. Mr. Blair 
was equal to the emergency. Communicating his 
design to several of the leading Union men of the city, 
he succeeded in raising a sum of money sufficient for 
arming his own company and providing it with a sup- 
ply of ammunition. He did not stop here, however. He 
exerted his every effort to increase the force of which he 
was a member, and to procure arms and money. He 
was aided by energetic Union men of his own selec- 
tion, and quiet but successful appeals were made in 
Missouri and elsewhere, with such success that by the 
last of Februaiy, 1861, the secret Union force in St. 
Louis consisted of four regiments, armed and equip- 
ped. Money was contributed liberally by citizens of 
other States for the support of the Union cause in 
Missouri, and at length a fund of thirty thousand dol- 



PLANS OF THE SECESSIONISTS. 331 

lars was raised for this purpose. These results were 
due to the energy and fertility of resource of Mr. 
Blair, who conceived the plans and infused a part 
of his own spirit into the persons appointed to carry 
them out. 

Mean^vhile the Secessionists were not idle. They 
had formed secret associations in St. Louis, under 
the leadership of Gen. D. M. Frost, the commander 
of the n^iilitia of the first district, a brave and able 
officer, and could rely with certainty upon the co-op- 
eration of the State authorities in the event of a col- 
lision with the Union men. Their j^rincipal object 
was to seize the United States arsenal at St. Louis, 
and, having armed their partisans with the weapons 
thus secured, to take possession of and hold the city, 
which they justly regarded as the most important 
strategic point in the South-West. The arsenal Avas 
of great value, and its stores consisted of 60,000 stand 
of arms of the best and latest patterns, 1,500,000 
ball cartridges, a number of cannon of all sizes, many 
valuable machine shops with their full equipments, 
and an ample supply of all kinds of munitions of 
war including nearly 100,000 pounds of powder. 
This valuable property was in charge of three or four 
officers, about twice as many detailed soldiers, and 
the unarmed workmen in the machine shops ; in other 
words, it was defenceless. Major Bell, the officer in 
ccjmmarc], -was ready at any moment to surrender 
the post to the State authorities, who refrained from 
seizing it merely because they were confident of their 
ability to do so at any moment. Gen. Frost secretly 



332 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

made his preparations to take the arsenal, and as a 
means of calling his men together, made arrangements 
with the representative of the Archbishop of St. 
Louis, who was absent from the city, for the purpose 
of sounding his signal from the bells of the Catholic 
churches of the city. He communicated this arrange- 
ment to his subordinates in a secret circular, which 
fell into the hands of Mr. Blair. In consequence of 
this discoverj', Messrs. Filley and Foy, friends of Mr. 
Blair — the former the Mayor of the city — called upon 
Archbishop Kendrick and asked if the information 
they had gained was true. The Archbishop replied 
that it was, but that he had already given orders 
that the bells of his churches should not be used 
for any such purpose. 

Mr. Blair at once sent the circular of Gen. Frost 
to Gen. Scott, and urged him to transfer the command 
of the arsenal from Major Bell to some one upon 
whom the Government could rely, and also to send 
troops to that post for its protection. Gen. Scott, 
about the last of January, sent a detachment of troops 
to the arsenal, and issued an order to Major Bell to 
report for duty at the headquarters of the Department 
of the East. Major Bell declined to obey the order 
on account of his large property interests in St. Louis, 
and tendered his resignation, which was accepted. 
Major Hagner was then placed in command of the 
arsenal. 

Early in January, the force at Jefferson Barracks, 
near the city, was increased. On the 11th, the United 
States funds at the Custom House were removed, un- 



i 



WISE MEASURES OF MR. BLAIR. 333 

der the protection of a strong guard, from the arsenal. 
These events created great indignation among the 
Southern men of St. Louis. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Blair labored earnestly to bring 
all the friends of the Union into one party. He wa? 
■willing to make any honorable concession to effect this, 
and urged his friends to drop the title of " Ile2:)ubli- 
cans," and call themselves Union men, in order that 
the old party] sms of the past might not defeat the end 
he had in view. His efforts were not successful, how- 
ever. The men who had been his political foes for 
years, and who were really true to the Union, could 
not forget their old party prejudices ; and, while they 
desired the preservation of the Union, did not wish to 
follow in the lead of the man who had dealt them such 
hard blows in old times. Mr. Blair was not discour- 
aged. He had resolved that Missouri should be saved 
to the Union, and he felt himself competent to effect 
this. The Union men had unanimously chosen him 
their leader, and it was fortunate for them that their 
choice was so wisely made. 

" The most admirable of all the personal incidents 
of that time was the perfect confidence and trust re- 
posed in each other by individual Bepublicans, and 
the supreme reliance placed in their leader. Between 
Mr. Blair and others of prominence in the party (men 
of great abilities and solid judgment as well), there 
existed the most thorough personal sympathy and har- 
mony. Indeed, it was no time to cater to ambition. 
The positive character, untiring energy^ and undaunted 
courage of Mr. Blair, capacitated him for leadership in 



334 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

such a crisis. His fertile brain devised every expe- 
dient, his indomitable will carried out every plan. 
While the rebels threatened, they found the work of a 
master on every hand. In activity and vigilance, he 
was more than a match for the whole batch of con- 
spirators. In council with his co-laborers, he accepted 
their suggestions, strengthened their plans, discouraged 
contentious debate, when indulged in by some young 
and unthinking friends, by mild remark or gentle re- 
proof, and rendered strict homage to age and ability. 
No spirit of jealousy, no desire for notoriety, interfered 
with his authority, and no personal ambition prompted 
him to encounter popular j^rejudice." * 

As we have said, Mr. Blair was very anxious to 
draw into one organization all the friends of the 
Union. The Legislature of the State had called a 
Convention to consider the troubles which were agita- 
ting the country, and both parties were desirous of 
gaining the control of that body. The Kepublican 
party, as a general rule, were in favor of putting forth 
a simple Republican ticket, but Mr. Blair and a few 
others opposed the idea. He said he was very anx- 
ious to secure the aid of the State generally in behalf 
of the Union men, but he feared the prejudice against 
the Kepublican party was so strong in the State, 
that numbers of good Union men would refuse to 
support a Republican ticket, no matter who were 
the candidates. He was for nominating an ii?icondi- 
tional Union ticket, the candidates to be taken from 
all parties. He met with considerable opposition. 

♦ Col. Peekham. 



UNCONDITIONAL UNIONISM. 335 

One of his friends, an ardent Republican, said he did 
not believe in breaking up the Kepublican party under 
any circumstances. "Let us have a country first," 
responded Blair, "and then we can talk about par 
ties." ==•= 

He worked unceasingly to accomplish the end he 
had in view, and at length succeeded in procuring, by 
a meeting of the unconditional Union men of all parties, 
the nomination of a ticket for candidates for the Con- 
vention from the City of St. Louis. Of these candi- 
dates three were Douglas Democrats, seven Bell-Everett 
men, and four Bepublicans. At the meeting which 
nominated these gentlemen, Mr. Blair made a speech 
of great power and eloquence. He said he did not 
care what party the candidates belonged to. He Avanted 
a new party — an unconditional JJnion party — which 
would remain faithful to the Union under any circum- 
stances, and that he should support the ticket nomi- 
nated. He said he meant to remain in the Union 
whether the State went out or not, and that he meant 
to remain in St. Louis, too. If Missouri seceded fi-om 
the Union, he wanted St. Louis to secede from Mis- 
souri. The city must be saved to the Union under 
any circumstances. It was no time to talk about party, 
but it was the duty of all good men to forget all party 
considerations in their devotion to their common 
country. 

The elections for the Convention were held on the 
18th of February, and Mr. Blair had the satisfaction 
of seeing the ticket for which he had labored, elected. 
* Col. Peckham. 



336 LIFE OF FRA^'CIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Tlie Union ticket throughout the State was successful 
by about 80,000 majority. 

The month of January, 1861, witnessed great ac- 
tivity on the part of the Union men of Missouri. The 
secret organizations were rapidly pushed forward to an 
effective footing, and spies were employed to watch 
and report the movements of the Secessionists. A 
strict watch Avas kept over the arsenal, the Union men 
holding themselves in readiness to march to its aid at 
any moment. Lieutenant Sweeney, of the regular 
army, had been placed in charge of the troops at that 
post, and he had avowed his determination to blow 
up the building rather than yield it to any one. Let- 
ters poured in upon Mr. Blair from all parts of the 
State, from Union men asking for advice, aid, and com- 
fort, and his private secretary was kept busy replying 
to them. The cause of secession seemed prosperous in 
all parts of the State. 

On the 6th of February a company of eighty en- 
listed men of the regular army reached the St. Louis 
arsenal from Fort Riley. The officer in charge of this 
force succeeded, by virtue of his rank, to the command 
of all the troops at the arsenal. He was Captain 
Nathaniel Lyon, a distinguished officer of the regular 
army, and it was not long before it came to be under- 
stood that he was just the man for whom the Union 
men of St. Louis had been wishing so long. 

" Upon his arrival in St. Louis, Captain Lyon at 
once called upon Mr. Blair, and from him learned the 
exact condition of affairs, both in the city and through- 
out the State. Thus between these two men was formed 



BLAIR AND LYON. 337 

an intimacy which speedily ripened into the warmest 
friendship and the most profound mutual respect and 
confidence. As the plot thickened, and the changing 
days developed new conditions, Blair was the trusted, 
confidential adviser, sought for in every instance, and 
in every instance upholding and sustaining. This 
confidence, this reliance, this friendship was never 
weakened by the clashing of opposing opinions, or by 
the selfishness which generally obtains in men flattered 
by ofiicial position and power." * 

Captain Lyon was introduced to the leading Union 
men of the city, and made acquainted with all their 
movements. He visited the armories and secret drills 
of the Union guards, and frequently aided in instruct- 
ing the men and establishing the necessary discipline. 
He at once set to work to put in force measures for the 
defence of the arsenal, but found himself greatly hin- 
dered by the conduct of Major Hagner, who threw 
every obstacle in his way. Indeed, so studied was 
Hagner s course that Lyon could not doubt that he 
was secretly in favor of giving up the arsenal to. the 
Secessionists. 

In order to remove this fatal opposition on the part 
of Major Hagner, Mr. Blair wrote repeatedly to Wash- 
ington, laying the case before the Government, but 
failing to get a prompt response to his letters, he con- 
cluded to see the President in person, and accordingly 
set out at once for Washington, stopping at Spring- 
field, Illinois, to see Mr. Lincoln, the President elect, 

* Oen. Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861. By Lt. Col. James 
Peckham. P. 58. 
22 



338 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

to whom he explained the situation and plans of the 
Union men of Missouri. He failed to accomplish any 
thing during Mr. Buchanan's administration, but after 
the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln procured an order 
from the War Department placing Captain Lyon in 
command of the defences of the arsenal. This order 
was at once sent to Gen. Harney, the commander of 
the Department, and reached him about the middle of 
March. Harney interpreted it literally, and placed 
Lyon in command of the troops and defences of the 
post, but left Hagner in charge of the arsenal. This 
made matters really very little better, as Hagner still 
had the power to thwart all of Lyon's measures for 
resisting an attack upon the arsenal. About the 
same time Captain Lyon was ordered to go to Fort 
Leavenworth on court martial duty, but this order 
was revoked by Gen. Scott as soon as he learned the 
true state of the case. Lyon, in spite of the obstacles 
before him, fortified the arsenal as well as the means 
at his command would permit, and posted sentmels at 
all its entrances Avith orders to refuse admittance to all 
persons not connected with the post. He assured a 
tcommittee of Union men who called upon him to warn 
him of a rumored attack upon him, that he would 
idefend the post to the last ; that if he found Hagner 
attempting to pla}^ into the hands of the Secessionists, 
he would throw him into the river ; and that if the 
Union men of the city were attacked he would take 
the responsibility of arming them from the arsenal. 

Li the excited condition of feeling in Missouri at 
this time, it was very difficult to prevent a collision 



MR. BLAIR RETURNS HOME. 339 

between the Union men and Secessionists. Mr. Blair 
exerted himself on all occasions to prevent an out- 
break. He urged his friends to submit to any thing 
rather than bring on a conflict. He was influenced by 
no hatred of his political foes ; his motives were high 
and pure ; and he believed his cause too sacred to be 
sullied by violence. His influence triumphed, and in 
spite of the unusual excitement, there was no blood- 
shed. 

Mr. Blair returned from Washington on the 17 th 
of April, after the fall of Fort Sumter. On the day 
of his arrival, the Governor of the State replied to 
President Lincoln's call for troops, refusing to furnish 
the aid asked for. Mr. Blair denounced this act in un- 
measured terms, and " telegraphed at once to Washing- 
ton, offering to raise immediately four regiments for 
active duty, and urging their acceptance and the ap- 
pointment of an officer to muster them into the service. 
That there might be no failure in securmg the atten- 
tion of the Government to this matter, as well as to 
the general wants of the loyalists of Missouri, Captain 
Barton Able visited Washington City for the purpose 
of representing Missouri affairs to the President and 
Cabinet. Mr. Blair also advised those officers of the 
militia who called upon him and announced their desire 
to identify themselves with the Union, to withdraw from 
the Jackson militia at once. He also advised the im- 
mediate recruiting of companies, and inspired confi- 
dence of their speedy muster. It is true, and injustice 
should be said, that Mr. Blair at that day was himself 
a host. Wherever loj'al men met in council he was 



340 LIFE or FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

there ; whenever loyal men received the word of com- 
mand it was from him."* 

On the 20th of April the Western Arsenal of the 
United States, at Liberty, Missouri, was seized by the 
State authorities. This was at once reported to Capt. 
Lyon, who was also warned that the command of Gen. 
Frost was contemplating an attack upon the St. Louis 
Arsenal. He made his arrangements to defend the 
post, and the Union men of St. Louis prepared to 
march to his assistance at the first siornal of danger. 

On the 21st of April, Mr. Blair received a despatch 
from Washington accepting the four regiments he had 
offered. On the same day Captain Lyon informed 
him that Lieutenant (now Major-General) Schofield 
was in St. Louis with authority to muster volunteers 
into the service. Mr. Blair at once sought an inter- 
view with Lieut. Schofield, who informed him that he 
was ready to muster in the four regiments. Schofield 
then proceeded to the arsenal for the purpose of re- 
ceiving the recruits, but, arriving there, found himself 
stopped by ordei*s from General Harney, prohibiting 
the entrance of volunteers into the arsenal, and also 
their subsistence atid arming. He returned to Mr. 
Blair with this report, and the two at once called upon 
Gen. Harney and urged him to countermand his order, 
but he refused to do so. Mr. Blair then returned 
home, and sending for a telegraph operator, Mr. 
Lucien Barnes, upon whose fidelity and discretion he 
knew he could rely, sent the following telegram to the 
Governor of Pennsylvania : 

* Gen, Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861, p. 103. 



ENERGETIC MEASURES. 341 

St. Louis, April 21, 1861. 
" Governor A. G. Curtin, Harrishurg, Pennsylvania : 
" An officer of the army here, has received an order 
to muster in Missouri regiments. General Harney re- 
fuses to let them remain in the arsenal grounds or 
permit them to be armed. I wish these facts to be 
communicated to the Secretary of War by special 
messenger, and instructions sent immediately to Har- 
ney to receive the troops at the arsenal, and arm 
them. Our friends distrust Harney very much. He 
should be superseded immediately by putting another 
commander in this district. The object of the Seces- 
sionists is to seize the arsenal here, with its seventy- 
five thousand stand of arms, and he refuses the means 
of defending it. We have plenty of men but no arms. 

"Frank P. Blair, Jr." 

While in Washington, Mr. Blair had procured 
from the War Department an order to Capt. L}'on to 
issue five thousand stand of arms from the arsenal to 
the Union men, in case it became necessary to defend 
the arsenal or to resort to force to protect their lives. 
Two days previous to the occurrence related above, 
Mr. Blair, finding that Harney would not allow the 
execution of the order, despatched his friend, Dr. 
Hazlett, to Washinfrton with the followiiio; letter to 
his brother, the Postmaster-General : 

"St. Louis, Ax)ril 19, 1861. 
" Dear Judge : Dr. Hazlett will hand you this 
letter. He goes to Washington for the purpose of 



342 LIFE OF FEANCIS P. BLAIR, JE. 

urging the removal of General Harney from this post, 
and ffivinjr us some one to command who ^Yill not ob- 
struct the orders of Government intended for our as- 
sistance. Harney has issued orders, at the instance 
of the Secessionists, refusing to allow us to have the 
guns which the Government had ordered to be given 
to us. We also want an order to Captain Lyon to 
swear in the four regiments assigned to Missouri. I 
have already written and telegraphed to this effect ; 
but in these days we do not know what to rely upon, 
and therefore we have deemed it advisable to send a 
special messenger. If you will send General "Wool, 
or some one who is not to be doubted, to take com- 
mand in this district, and designate an officer to swear 
in our volunteers, and arm the rest of our people, who 
are willing to act as a ci\'ic or home guard, I think we 
shall be able to hold our ground here. But the man 
sent to supersede Harney should reach here before 
Harney is apprised of his removal ; and the order to 
swear in our volunteers should come as soon as possi- 
ble, and should be sent to Lyon by telegraph, if not 
already sent, and should be repeated, even if the order 
has been sent already. I consider these matters of 
vital importance, otherwise would not urge them upon 
your attention. I ask you to see Cameron immedi- 
ately in regard to the business. 

"Yours, Frank P. Blair, Jr. 

" Hon. Montgomery Blair." 

After sending his telegram to "Washington, on the 
21st, Mr. Blair went to the arsenal to see Lyon. He 



THE ST. LOUIS VOLUNTEERS. 343 

found three of the Committee of Safety there in con- 
sultation with the Captain. The course of General 
Harney and the situation of affairs were gravely dis- 
cussed, and it was unanimously resolved that the 
arsenal should be reinforced by the volunteers that 
night, General Harney's order to the contrary not- 
withstanding. These recruits were successfully intro- 
duced into the building, and armed at the appointed 
time. 

On the same day, being apprehensive of a collision 
in the city, Mr. Blair sent his family away from St. 
Louis. The Southern men were constantly making 
offensive demonstrations in front of his residence, and 
as he did not know how long it would be before these 
insults would be chano-ed into violence, he thought 
it best to send his family beyond the reach of danger. 

On the 23d, General Harney was summoned by 
the Secretary of War to report at Washington without 
delay, and he at once complied with the order. In 
four days four regiments were mustered into the Fed- 
eral service. Their Colonels were Blair (1st E,egt.), 
Boernstein (2d Regt.), Sigel (3d Regt.), and Schutt- 
ner (4th Regt.). Colonel Blair was not formally 
mustered into the Federal service at this time, as he 
did not wish to forfeit his scat in Congress. All these 
regiments were full to the maximum limit, and more 
men were offered, but could not be received. The 
officers were anxious to elect Colonel Blair their 
Brigadier-General, but he declined to comply with 
their wishes, declaring that Captain Lyon was entitled 
by his services, skill, and devotion to the cause, to the 



344 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

honor. Lyon at once urged Blair to accept tlie posi- 
tion, and assured him of his earnest desire to serve 
under him ; but Blair was firm in his decision. He 
told Lyon that it was likely the old political prejudice 
ao^ainst him as a Kepublican might keep some men out 
of the service of the Union if he assumed the command 
of the brigade, and assured him he would consider the 
honor too dearly bought if it kept back a single man.* 
Lyon ^\'as finally chosen the General of the brigade, 
and at once commenced to act as such, though he was 
not officially confirmed in his command until some 
weeks later. The rush of volunteers was so gTeat, 
that Lyon accepted and mustered in a fifth regiment, 
under Colonel Stifel, trusting to Colonel Blair to make 
o-ood his action with the Government. In addition 

c 

to this force of five thousand men, five thousand Home 
Guards were organized and armed, and still it was 
necessary to decline many volunteers. 

Having armed this force, Lyon determined to send 
the remainder of the arms and stores away from the 
arsenal, in order to make sure of their being safe from 
betrayal or capture. On the nights of the 26th of 
April and 1st of May, he sent away by steamer every 
thing of value to i^lton, whence the precious freight 
was transferred to Springfield, Illinois. 

On the 3d of May, the militia force under the 
command of Brigadier-General D. M. Frost, of the 
State service, established a camp of instruction on the 
outskirts of the city, which was called Camp Jackson, 
in honor of the Governor of the State. This camp 
* Colonel Peckham. 



CAPTURE OF CAMP JACKSON. 345 

was established for the ostensible purpose of instruct- 
insr the militia which had been called into the State 
service by the Governor, but really for the purpose of 
capturing the arsenal, which the Southern leaders sup- 
posed to be still furnished with its usual amount of 
arms and stores. The presence of the force at Camp 
Jackson Avas regarded by Captain Lyon and Colonel 
Blair as a formidable menace against the authority of 
the General Government. The designs of General 
Frost and his friends were fully known to them, and 
they agreed that something ought to be done to check 
the evil before it grew too great. Captain Lyon visit- 
ed the camp in the disguise of a woman on the 9th of 
May, and informed himself as to its position, strength, 
&c., and returning to his quarters, sent for Colonel 
Blair, and told him he had resolved to capture Frosfs 
whole force before he could be reinforced. The Com- 
mittee of Safety was then sent for, and the plan, which 
had received Blair s heart}^ approval, was sanctioned 
by them after some hesitation.* 

Lyon made his preparations promptly, and on the 
afternoon of May 10th, suddenly surrounded Camp 
Jackson with his five regiments and a battery of artil- 
lery, and demanded of Gen. Frost an immediate sur- 
render of his camp and forces. Being completely sur- 
prised and outnumbered, Frost had no alternative but 
a compliance with this demand, and at once surren- 
dered his whole force, camp, and equipments. 

* The sanction of this Committee was necessary, inasmnch as the 
President had directed Lyon to be guided by the advice of its mem- 
bers. 



346 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

A larse crowd of citizens had collected to witness 
the movements of the Union troo2^s, and the great part 
of these spectators were friends of, and sympathizers 
with the militia. Infuriated by the capture of their 
friends, the crowd made an attack on company F. of 
the Third Kegiment of Missouri Volunteers. At first 
stones and bricks were used, and finally several pistol 
shots were fired by the mob. Captain Blandowski, 
commanding the company, urged his men to refrain 
from returning the attack of the mob, but, when one 
of his men had been killed, several wounded, and him- 
self mortally wounded, he ordered his command to fire 
upon the mob. The order was obeyed with fatal effect, 
and the crowd was driven back with a loss of twenty 
killed and wounded. On the return of the troops to 
the arsenal with their prisoners, they were followed 
bv the crowd for some distance, and one or two more 
conflicts occurred, in which the citizens suffered se- 
verely. The total loss of the citizens was about 40 killed 
and wounded. One federal soldier was killed, one 
(Capt. Blandowski) mortally wounded, and several 
more or less injured. Lyon and Blair exerted them- 
selves to the utmost to keep the troops from firing. 
Durin": the whole affair not a sino-le shot was fired from 
Blair's regiment, though his men were subjected to the 
most galling taunts and insults from the j^risoners and 
the mob. The prisoners were conveyed to the arsenal, 
where they were paroUed and sent back to the city the 
next evening:. 

Gen. Harney returned to St. Louis on the llth of 
May, and announced his intention to disband the 



ENERGY OF MR. BLAIR. 347 

Home Guards, a declaration which greatly elated the 
Southern leaders. The next day Gen. Harney called 
on Col. Blair and informed him of this design. Blair 
replied that he (Gen. Harney) had no right to do so. 
He showed him the President's order authorizing the 
orjxanization of the Home Guards, and assured him 
that an order for their dispersion would not be submit- 
ted to in the face of this authority. A lengthy interview 
ensued, which resulted in General Harney's promising 
not to interfere with the Home Guard. Blair, after 
the General's departure, was fearful that he might still 
attempt to break up this force, and resolved with Lyon 
and the officers of the regular army on duty at the 
arsenal, to arrest Harney in case he tried to put such 
an order into execution. Harney, however, was faith- 
ful to his promise, and issued a proclamation stating 
that he had no authority to disband or disarm the 
Home Guards. 

About this time certain citizens of St. Louis went 
to Washington with the hope of having Capt. Lyon 
removed. They gained over the Attorney General by 
their misrepresentations, and came near being success- 
ful. To counteract their influence, Col. Blair sent his 
brother-in-law, Mr. F. A. Dick, to "Washington, to lay 
the real state of affairs before the President. This 
special messenger Avas soon followed by a statement 
from the Committee of Safety, prepared by Col. Blair, 
fully sustaining Lyon in all his acts. Mr. Dick's mis- 
sion was successful, and resulted in the promotion of 
Lyon to the grade of Brigade General of Volunteers, 
and an order for the removal of General Harney. 



348 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIE, JR. 

This order ]\Ir. Lincoln sent to Col. Blair, together with 
the following letter : 

"Washington, D. C, May 18th, 1861. 
"Hon. r. P.Blair: 

" My dear Sir : We have a good deal of anxiety 
here about St. Louis. I understand an order has ofone 
from the War Department to you, to be delivered or 
withheld in your discretion, relieving General Harney 
from his command. I was not quite satisfied with the 
order when it was made, thouo-h on the whole I thouo-ht 
it best to make it ; but since then I have become more 
doubtful of its propriety. I do not write now to coun- 
tennand it, but to say I wish you would withhold it, 
unless in your judgment the necessity to the contrary 
is very urgent. There are several reasons for this. We 
had better have him a friend than an enemy. It will 
dissatisfy a good many who otherwise w^ould be quiet. 
More than all, we first relieve him, then restore him ; 
and now if v\^e relieve him again the public will ask, 
' Why all this vacillation ? ' 

" Still, if in your judgment it is indispensable, let 
it be so. Yours ver}' truly, 

[Private.] "A. Lincoln." 

" Colonel Blair pocketed the letter and the order. 
He fully entered into the spirit of Mr. Lincoln's letter, 
and talked frankly with Lyon, under the seal of con- 
fidence, reojardino: it. It was determined the order 
should not be handed to Harney, until it should be 
criminal to longer withhold it. On the next day ap- 



THE HARNEY AND PRICE AGREEMENT. 349 

peared the arrangement between Price and Harney ; 
and under the circumstances, Colonel Blair concluded 
to give Harney an opportunity of more completely 
testing his policy. He was not disposed to part with 
Harney, if he could avoid it. He admired the man 
in his military capacity, and thought, if he could once 
divest himself of the influences surrounding him, he 
would do well enough. But day by day events multi- 
plied, and the Arsenal was thronged with messengers 
from every quarter of the State, complaining of the or- 
ganization of the * Missouri State Guard ' under the 

o 

Military bill, and the depredations committed by the Se- 
cessionists. Colonel Blair endeavored to rouse Harney 
to a just appreciation of the demands of the occasion, 
but that officer could not agree with the policy of the 
Colonel." =•■= 

The agreement between Generals Harney and Price 
was one by which the State authorities pledged them- 
selves to maintain order in the State, to protect all 
parties in their rights, and to refrain from raising 
troops under the Military bill. Gen. Harney, in con- 
sideration of these pledges on the part of the State 
authorities bound the General Government to respect 
the neutrality of Missouri, and merely to use the Fed- 
eral troops for the purpose of preserving the peace, at 
the request of the State authorities. The pledges of 
the General Government were faithfully kept ; but, as 
will be seen from the passage quoted above, the faith 
of the State was violated daily. The Southern element 
was rapidly growing bolder and more formidable, and 
* Gen. Nathaniel Lyon and Missouri in 1861, pp. 210-211. 



350 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

it became evident to all that if the Government would 
maintain its authority in Missouri, it must act promptly 
and with vigor. The President, on the 27tli of May, 
urged General Harney to insist upon the faithful ex- 
ecution of the pledges of the State, and pointed out to 
him their frequent violations. In view of all this, Col. 
Blair came to the conclusion that the removal of Gen. 
Harney was now indispensable to the success of the 
tlnion cause in Missouri, and on the 30th of IMay, he 
delivered to Gen. Harney the order for his removal from 
his command. On the same day, he wrote to the Pres- 
ident as follows : 

" St. Louis Arsenal, May SOth, 1861. 

" To the President : On the 16th of May, an order 
was issued by the War Department, relieving General 
Hamey from the command of the Department of the 
West, granting him leave of absence. 

" By order of the President, this order was sent to 
me, to be delivered to General Harney when in case 
the public interest required it. During the time that 
Brigadier-General Lyon, acting under special orders of 
the President, was in command of the United States 
troops at this post, in view of the hostile attitude as- 
sumed by the Governor and authorities of this State to- 
ward the United States Government, General (then 
Captain) Lyon, seeing the formidable jJi'ep^^^^tions 
which were being made by the authorities to commence 
war upon the United States, and knowing that these 
preparations had long been on foot, and extended to 
all parts of the State, felt it to be his duty to strike a 



LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 351 

decisive blow at the enemy at a time when his forces 
were relatively so much the larger ; so that such a 
course of action, accompanied with the power to suc- 
cessfully keep it up, would intimidate and subdue the 
Rebels before thev had o-ained strenojth or confidence. 
The capture of Camp Jackson, while it furnished con- 
clusive evidence of the treasonable purpose of those 
who controlled it, served greatly to intimidate the 
leaders of the Rebellion. Had it been followed up by a 
blow struck at the enemy in other parts of the State, 
the Rebellion would speedily and effectually, at a 
small cost of life or treasure, have been suppressed in 
this State ; and it was the policy and intention of Gen- 
eral Lyon to pursue such a course. In this policy I 
sustained General Lyon. 

" Just at this point General Harney assumed the 
command, and before the order relieving him reached 
me he had made an arrangement with General Price, 
commanding State forces, the purport of which I pre- 
sume is known to the President. Satisfied that evil 
results would follow from that arrangement, I should 
at the time have delivered the order to General Har- 
ney, but felt, under the responsibility placed upon 
me, that it was proper for me to wait and see if any 
good might come under the administration of General 
Harney. From that day to this it has been perfectly 
apparent to me that matters were gi'owing worse, and 
that said arrangement served only as a cover and a 
protection to rebels throughout the State. I have to- 
day delivered to General Harney the order of the 16th 
of May above mentioned, relieving him, feeling that 



352 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

the progress of events, and condition of affairs in this 
State, makes it incumbent upon me to assume the 
grave responsibility of this act, the discretionary power 
in the premises having been given me by the Presi- 
dent, and I make a brief statement of the reasons there- 
for. 

"We have conclusive evidence that extensive prep- 
arations \vithin this State are on foot to raise and arm 
large forces to make war upon the United States Gov- 
ernment. From every neighborhood in the Central 
and South-west portion of the State, men are drilling 
and arming, and both men and arms will speedily be 
brought to the State from Arkansas. A large num- 
ber of wagons have been sent from Jefferson City to 
the Southern part of the State to transport arms 
and other munitions of "War. For the last ten days 
I have had most of my time occupied by persons 
from all parts of the State, who have come here ex- 
pressly to give information of this state of facts, and 
ask the aid of the Government to protect Union 
men. 

" Should these things be permitted longer to go on, 
the Union men would be crushed or driven out from 
all parts of the State, and the State be completely 
given over to the hands of the Rebels. Day after 
day I have made known to General Harney what 
was occurring in the interior, and I have urged upon 
him the necessity of taking measures to protect the 
peaceful part of the people. His answer has been 
—' I will tell Price about it ; I will get Price to 
correct it ; ' and he has treated the statements of 



LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. 353 

these men from the interior as untrue or too insignifi- 
cant to deserve attention. At times he has promised 
me that he would interpose, but afterward would 
say that there was no occasion for doing any thing. 
I ascribe the conduct of General Harney to the in- 
fluences by which he is constantly surrounded. His 
friends and advisers are bitter enemies of the Gov- 
ernment, some of them pretended Union men, others 
undisguised Secessionists. Constantly surrounded by 
these enemies of the Administration, and yielding to 
the advice and requests of such men, his conduct is 
such that under him the cause of the Union is rapidly 
sinking, and that of its enemies rapidly attaining 
power ; and I feel and know that his removal has be- 
come absolutely necessary. The preparations of the 
enemy are now so active and formidable, that I am. 
satisfied the President should order a larjz-e increase oft 
United States forces in this State, so that troops may. 
be enlisted and stationed at Jefferson City, Lexington^ 
St. Joseph, Hannibal, Macon City, Springfield, and 
other points. 

"In other States, where there are no domestic ene- 
mies, much larger forces have been authorized, while 
in Missouri, where the enemy is large and powerful, 
and is being reenforced from the South, the number 
authorized is inadequate. I therefore urge upon the 
President that he issue such orders for the increase of 
the forces in this State as will enable the loyal citizens 
to protect their homes and the Government from the 
Kebels. Forces raised in Missouri will ])e better able 
to accomplish this purpose than those from other States. 
23 



354 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

I have reliable information of the disloyalty of many 
of the United States officers who have been stationed 
in New Mexico and Utah, and there is reason to be- 
lieve that they, with such parts of their commands as 
they may be able to draw after them, acting in con- 
junction with the Indians, to the South-west of this 
State, who by emissaries from Missouri and Arkansas 
have been incited to hostility, and the forces from the 
South-west will combine in supporting the Secession- 
ists in this State. From abundant information I regard 
this to be an impending danger, and in view of it T 
ask, that in addition to authority to increase our force 
in Missouri, that orders be issued for the cooperation 
of the United States regulars and State forces in 
Kansas to be employed in the South-west part of this 
State and Arkansas, and the Indian Territory. We 
are well able to take care of this State without assist- 
ance from elsewhere, if authorized to raise a sufficient 
force within the State ; and after that work is done 
we can take care of the Secessionists from the Arkansas 
line to the Gulf, along the west shore of the Mississippi. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" Frank P. Blair, Jr." * 

General Lyon was now in command of the De- 

* Upon the receipt of the above letter at Washington, the Post Mas- 
ter General wrote to Col. Blair : 

•' Yours to the President came to hand and has been read bj him, 
ETe Is persuaded that you were right, and Cameron sustains you. * * * * 

" It is a full vindication of you that Harney, after denouncing the 
Military bill as unconstitutional, proceeded to treat with Price, acting 
under its authority, who did not, of course, keep faith, but proceeded at 
once to play out the game intended by the bill itself." 



INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR. 355 

partment of the West, and the effect of the change was 
at once felt. 

As soon as the State authorities heard of the re- 
moval of General Harney, the Governor sought an 
interview with General Lyon, who at once consented 
to the request, as he was anxious to come to a definite 
understanding with the authorities of the State. The 
meeting took place at the Planter''s Hotel in St. Louis, 
on the 11th of June. There were present Gen. Lyon, 
Col. Blair and Major Conant, on the part of the Fed- 
eral Government, and Governor Jackson, Gen. Price 
and Mr. T. L. Sneed, on the part of the State. The 
interview lasted four hours. 

" Governor Jackson demanded that no United 
States forces should be quartered in or marched through 
the State. 

" General Lyon laid down his views, as a servant 
of the Government, somewhat to this effect : That if 
the Government withdrew its forces entirely, resort 
would be made to secret and subtle measures to pro- 
vide arms and effect organizations which, upon any 
pretext, could put forth a formidable opposition to the 
General Government, and even w^hile arming, combi- 
nations would doubtless form in certain localities to 
oppress arid drive out loyal citizens, to whom the Gov- 
ernment was bound to give protection, but which it 
would be helpless to do, as also to repress such combi- 
nations, if its forces could not be sent into the State. 
A large aggressive force might be formed and advanced 
from the exterior into the State, to assist it in carrying 
out the Secession programme, and the Government 



356 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

could not, under the limitations proposed, take posts 
on these borders to meet and repel such force. The 
Government could not shrink from its duties nor 
abdicate its corresponding rights ; and, in addition to 
the above, it was the duty of its civil officers to execute 
civil process, and in case of resistance, to receive the 
support of military force. The proposition of the 
Governor would at once overturn the Government's 
privileges and prerogatives which he (Gen. Lyon) had 
neither the wish nor authority to do. In his opinion, 
if the Governor and the State authorities would earn- 
estly set about to maintain the peace of the State, and 
declare their purposes to resist outrages upon loyal 
citizens of the Government, and repress insurrections 
against it, and in case of violent combinations, needing 
cooperation of the United States troops, they should 
call upon or accept such assistance, and in case of 
threatened invasion, the Government troops took suit- 
able posts to meet it, the purposes of the Government 
would be subserved and no infringement of the State's 
rights or dignity committed. He would take good 
care, in such faithful cooperation of the State authori- 
ties to this end, that no individual should be injured 
in person or property, and that the utmost delicacy 
should be observed towards all peaceable persons con- 
cerned in these relations. Upon this basis, in Gen. 
Lyon's opinion, could the rights of both the General 
and the State Governments be secured, and peace 
maintained." * 

After this interview the Governor returned to Jef- 

* Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, p. 481. 



COL. BLAIR LEAVES MISSOURL 357 

ferson City, the Capital of the State, and the next 
day, the 12th, issued his proclamation calling fifty 
thousand of the State militia into active service for the 
purpose of driving the Federal troops from the State, 
and protecting the " lives, liberty, and property of the 
citizens." 

General Lvon and Colonel Blair now determined 
to assert the authority of the Government without 
further delay, and as the Governor had called on the 
people of the State to drive them out, they resolved to 
anticipate him, seize the State Capital, and hold it for 
the Union. 

Accordingly, on the night of the 13th of June, 
the steamers latan and J. C. Swann, having on board 
fifteen hundred infantry and a battery of artillery, 
under Col. Blair, who was accompanied by Gen. Lyon, 
left St. Louis for Jefi'erson City, which they reached 
and occupied on the 15th, the Governor and his friends 
having fled to the interior of the State. 

A day or two later Gen. Lyon proceeded up the 
river to Boonville with Col. Blair s regiment, and oc- 
cupied the place, driving off the State troops under 
Price, which tried to resist his landino-. The fijiht was 
sharp and brief, and the victory decisive. 

On the 24th of June, Col. Blair left Missouri for 
Washington City, to attend the Special Session of 
Congress which had been summoned by the President 
to convene on the 4th of July 18G1. The Missouri 
Democrat of the 6th of July 18G1, thus speaks of the. 
effect .of his absence : 

" The lack of Colonel Blair's energetic spirit has 



858 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

been apparent in every attempt at progress made since 
he left for "Washington. 

"In the absence of Colonel Blair the General 
(Lyon) lacks a strong right hand. The adroitness and 
facility with which he grasped the State then reeling 
under Secession influence, and pinned the star with in- 
creasing firmness to the constellation of the Union, 
will in due time cause grateful recollections to spring 
up in the breast of every honest, loyal citizen. Turn 
which way we will we can find no one who contributed 
more successfully to this great object than Colonel 
Blair." ='= 

* This same journal in its issue of June 26th 1861, speaks as follows 
of Col. Blair : 

" Col. Blair left this city on Monday Inst for the East ; the situation 
of things in Missouri for the moment not calling for his presence at the 
head of his regiment, he has departed East to render a more A-aluable 
service to Missouri and to the whole country. The time that must elapse 
between this and the 4th of July, on which day Congress will meet, is 
short enough for the duties he has undertaken to discharge before ho will 
be required to resume his seat in the House of Eepresentatives. 

" That he will do ' well and quickly ' what is in his hands to do, none 
can doubt. From the moment that Colonel Blair entered on public life, 
he has had this confidence from his friends. From that moment he has 
commanded this re-pect from his opponents. Boy or man, all have con- 
ceded to Frank Blair the will and the ability to meet the responsibilities 
of every occasion in which it has been his duty to act. With the ex- 
pansive vigor of a superior intellect, he has developed new powers in 
every crisis, and risen equal to the demands of every emergency. To- 
day he fills a higher place in the popular estimation than ho has ever 
filled. Ho has left Missouri with a greater reputation, a more extended 
influence, and larger capabilities for good than she has yet enjoyed. It 
is buf just to Col. Blair to record that, on his return to tliis city in April 
last, his talents were subjected to a most severe and trying experiment. 
The grand object before him, at that time, was to arrest the State of 
Missouri, then trembling on the verge of revolution, and bind her fast to 
the Union. The means by which this great and patriotic end was to be 



SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 359 

Col. Blair reached Washington by way of New 
York, and while in the latter city he delivered a pow- 
erful speech at the Metropolitan Hotel, in which he 

accomplished were of the most difficult and delicate nature. They con- 
sisted in the organizing and arming in this citj of a military force suffi- 
cient to protect its loyal inhabitants against armed bands of secessionists, 
already organized and officered and drilled, and backed up by a traitorous 
State Government, and a City Government which, if not traitorous in 
fact, was hostile to the Union and sympathizing strongly with secession. 
"Who does not remember the haughty bearing of the secessionists at that 
time (so chop-fallen withal and humbled now) ? Our Commissioners of 
Police had discovered that Captain (now General) Lyon, who had only 
some two hundred men in the Arsenal, had no authority to bring his 
men outside its walls. They had procured the opinion of a certain 
traitor lawyer that to do so was unconstitutional. They had posted sen- 
tinels around the Arsenal to spy out the movements there, and bring into 
contempt the national flag, and put under the law of a rebel city police 
the men who bore it. Brigadier-General Frost, ' who has since melted 
quite away,' had announced his purpose to plant batteries on the high 
grounds commanding the Arsenal, and General Harney had decided that 
it would not be '■prudenf in Lyon to take any step to prevent it, and 
that no such attempt should he made. St. Louis trembled and cowered 
beneath the overwhelming power of secession. 

" The difficulty of organizing such a military force as Blair desired 
was three-fold. There was difficulty in overcoming the fears of the rank 
and file of the Union men, who knew their motions were watched by a 
sharp and hostile police. There was danger that the first small body of 
Union men who might initiate the work might be set upon and cut to 
pieces by the ' Minute Men,' who had garrisoned and fortified with can- 
non the buUding on the corner of Fifth and Pine, or by Frost's brigade, 
who were at that time quartered in the city. 

" But another most imposing difficulty to be overcome lay in the hes- 
itation and timidity of many men of influence among the Union men 
themselves. It was dangerous, said these, to organize ; it was rash to 
arm; it would excite secessionists, provoke attack, draw down upon us 
the city police, and lead to bloodshed. But all these difficulties were 
surmounted; it was in the genius of Colonel Blair to overcome them all. 
He moved right on. His quiet, steady, and unpretending courage in- 
spirited the faltering Union men. His discretion and celerity of action 



360 LIFE OF FRAKCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

urged prompt and vigorous war measures, and inti- 
mated that General Scott was too slow for the occa- 
sion. 

The first Session of the 37th Congress was opened 
at "Washington on the 4th of July, 1861, in compli- 
ance with the proclamation of President Lincoln. Col. 
Blair was. present in his capacity of Representative 
from Missouri. Before the House proceeded to the 
election of a Speaker, Mr. Vallandigham offered a res- 
olution that the Clerk be instructed to omit the name 
of Mr. Blair in calling the roll, as that gentleman was 
ineligible in consequence of holding a military com- 
mission from the United States Government. CoL 

overreached both the police and the 'Minute Men,' the organization was 
perfected with so much secrecy and dispatch that an army seemed to 
have been created in an hour. It was in this way that Colonel Blair held 
up and sustained the Union men with one hand, while with the other he 
smote and discomfited the secessionists. 

" The rest is known. The capture of Camp Jackson, that nucleus of 
the Secession army, which was to take Missouri out of the Union, the 
most gallant feat in the history of the War, was but one of the results 
of the wisdom we have been attempting to portray. 

" The battle of Boonville, another brilliant feat of arms, whose 
splendors have covered our little army as with a mantle, might have been 
won by any officer with less than a tithe of the credit for talents which 
rightfully belong to Colonel Blair. These victories were won, in fact, 
last winter and spring, when Frank Blair, and the friends who followed 
after him in their self-denying work of patriotism, threaded the streets 
and alleys of St. Louis by night, and met with secrecy in halls and garrets, 
and collected, and officered, and drilled, and formed, and moulded into 
shape by slow degrees the Union army of St. Louis, six thousand strong, 
soon after to be swelled by contributions from the country to nearly 
thrice that number. * * * The State is safe, and has been saved by 
a stroke of genius, with little bloodshed, from the horror of a protracted 
conflict. The indiscretion of a' far-reaching sagacity and a lofty courage 
in a single man has done the work." 



COL. BLAIR IN CONGRESS. 361 

Blair then informed Mr. Vallandio;liam that he was 
wrong in his statement, as he, Col. Blair, had not 
been sworn into the service of the United States. 
Mr. Vallandigham's objection, therefore, fell to the 
ground. 

The House then proceeded to ballot for a Speaker. 
On the first ballot Mr. Blair, having been placed in 
nomination, received fifty votes. Before the result 
was announced, however, he rose and said : 

" I think it unnecessary to impose upon the House 
the necessity of calling even another ballot for the 
purpose of securing an organization of the House. I 
beg leave, therefore, to decline my candidacy at this 
point, and request such of my friends who have voted 
for me, as desire to do so, to change their votes." 

The result was the election of Mr. Grow, of Penn- 
sylvania, for whom Col. Blair had voted. 

Upon the organization of the House, Col. Blair 
was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Military 
Affairs. In this capacity he reported and procured 
the passage of most of the measures which enabled the 
Government to place and maintain its armies in the 
field. He was unceasing in his activity, and in the 
short session of the summer of 1861 accomplished an 
amount of work which is almost astonishino-. 

o 

On the 13th of July, 1861, he introduced a reso- 
lution for the expulsion from the House of General 
John B. Clark, of Missouri, in consequence of the 
latter having taken up arms in behalf of the South 
against the United States, which resolution was adopt- 
ed. 



362 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Col. Blair was a warm supporter of the Adminis- 
tration of Mr. Lincoln during this session. After the 
battle of Bull Run, he defended the President from the 
charjre that he had forced General Scott to fiixht the 
battle against that officer s better judgment. 

At the close of the session Col. Blair returned to 
Missouri, and at once applied himself to the task of 
raising troops. General Fremont, who had been 
placed in command of the Western Department, took 
no steps to meet the danger with which the State was 
threatened. He was deaf to all the appeals of the 
Union men for aid, and was more careful of his own 
interests than of those of the Government. Indignant 
at such a course, Col. Blaii* boldly denounced it, and 
laid the facts of the case before the Government. 
Fremont unjustly placed him under arrest, but soon 
found he had made a grave mistake, for Col. Blair's 
popularity was so great in St. Louis, that the Gen- 
erafs high-handed measure created the greatest in- 
dignation and excitement amongst the Union men 
of the place. The newspapers of the city espoused 
Col. Blair's cause, and his case was at once laid before 
the President, who ordered his release, a measure 
which gave great satisfaction in Missouri, where Col. 
Blair s services were known and appreciated. Fremont 
again arrested him during the winter, but was finally 
compelled to release him. 

Col. Blair attended the Second Session of the 37th 
Congress, in December, 1861, and served to its close, 
acting during that time as Chairman of the Military 
Committee. 



CHAPTER HI. 

Colonel Blair is Requested to Raise a Brigade in Missouri — Is made Brig- 
adier-General — Stationed at Helena, Ark. — Grant's First Campaign 
against Vicksburg — Sherman's Expedition against Chickasaw Bluffs 
— The Landing of the Troops — The Assault of the 29th of December, 
1862 — Gallant Conduct of General Blair — The Assault a Failure — 
The Capture of Arkansas Post — General Blair made a Major-Gcn- 
eral of Volunteers — Assigned the Command of a Division — His Ser- 
vices in the Vicksburg Campaign — Rejoins Sherman on the Big 
Black — The Investment of Vicksburg — The Assaults of May 19th 
and 22d — Conduct of General Blair — His Reconnoissance towards 
the Big Black — The Second Capture of Jackson, Miss. — Is made 
Sherman's Second in Command — Put in Charge of the Fifteenth 
Army Corps — The March to Chattanooga — The Battles of Missionary 
Ridge — The Pursuit of Bragg — The Relief of Knoxville — General 
Blair is Deprived of his Command. 

In consequence of the personal popularity and 
great influence of Colonel Blair in Missouri, the Sec- 
retary of War early in the Spring of 1862, requested 
him to raise a brigade of volunteers in that State, of 
which brigade he was to be the regularly commissioned 
commander. Col. Blair at once proceeded to comply 
with this request. In the course of a few months his 
brigade was organized and ready for the field, and on 
the 7th of August, 1862, he was commissioned Brig- 
adier-General of Volunteers. His brigade was at first 
attached to the Fourth Division of the Thirteenth 
Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Frederick Steele, 
and stationed at Helena, Arkansas. 



864 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

In the winter of 18G2-63, General Grant first con. 
ceived the design of attacking Vicksburg, Mississippi. 
At this time the Federal Army of the Tennessee, com- 
manded by General Grant, lay along the line of the 
Memphis and Charleston Railway, from the vicinity of 
luka to Memphis; and along the Mobile and Ohio and 
Mississippi Central Railways, from the Tallahatchie 
river to the Tennessee. The Confederate army, com- 
manded by General Pemberton, and consisting of the 
combined forces of that officer and Generals Price and 
Lovell, held the line of the Tallahatchie and covered 
the approaches to Central Mississippi. The Missis- 
sippi river being open to Vicksburg and in the control 
of the naval forces of the United States, it was in 
General Grant's power to turn the left flank of Pem- 
berton's line by a force which should be landed on the 
left bank of the Mississippi, and compel him to fall 
back to Vicksburg. Accordingly, about the last of 
October, General Grant determined to make an early 
advance upon the enemy. His plan was as follows. 
A considerable force of cavalry, under Major-General 
Washburne, was to cross the Mississippi from Helena, 
Arkansas, march suddenly upon Grenada, Mississippi, 
and threaten Pemberton's rear. At the same time 
Grant, with the main army, would move southward 
from Jackson, Tenn., by way of Grand Junction and 
La Grange, following generally the line of the Mobile 
and Ohio Railway ; while Sherman, with four brigades 
of infantry, was to move out of Memphis on the Tchu- 
lahoraa road, and attack the enemy at Wyatf s simul- 
taneously with Grant's arrival at Waterford. The 



THE FIRST VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 365 

plan was skilful, and the first part was well and vigor- 
ously executed. 

Three columns moved at the appointed time. Hear- 
ing of Grant's approach, Pemberton prepared to dis- 
pute his progress ; but abandoned his intention as soon 
as he learned of Washburne's movement in his rear. 
Hastily breaking up his camp, he retreated to Grenada 
without striking a blow, and left Grant in undisputed 
possession of the line of the Tallahatchie. 

The first part of the plan of operations being thus 
successfully accomplished. General Grant prepared to 
carry out the remainder. It was his design that a 
strono; force under General Sherman should descend 
the Mississippi river, surprise and carry the works 
near the mouth of the Yazoo river, which commanded 
the approaches to Vicksburg; while he, himself, with 
the main army should move raj)idly upon Vicksburg 
by way of Grenada and Jackson, driving Pemberton 
before him and keeping him too closely engaged to 
allow him to send reinforcements to that city to resist 
Sherman's attack. He believed that should Sherman 
fail to capture the city, he could at least secure a lodg- 
ment on the shore of the Yazoo with his rio-ht wins: in 
communication with the fleet, which he could hold 
until the main army could arrive and complete the in- 
vestment of the city. 

Sherman left Memphis with the Thirteenth Army 
Corps on the 20th of December, 1862, accompanied by 
a stronn- fleet of o;unboats under command of Hear- 
Admiral D. D. Porter. At Helena, Arkansas, he was 
reinforced by General Steele's division, of which Gen- 
eral Blair's brigade formed a part. 



366 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

The expedition reached Milliken's Bend, just above 
the mouth of the Yazoo, on the night of the 24th of 
December. On Christmas day, Sherman sent a force 
into Louisiana and destroyed a part of the Vicksburg 
and Shreveport (Texas) Railway, to prevent any troops 
being sent against him over that route. On the 26th, 
the expedition, convoyed by the gunboats, ascended 
the Yazoo for twelve miles, Moro-an's division leadinf): 
the way, and followed by Steele's, Morgan L. Smith's, 
and A. J. Smith's, in the order named. By noon on 
the 27th, the entire command had disembarked on the 
south side of the Yazoo, near the mouth of Chickasaw 
Bayou. The Avhole army then moved towards the 
enemy's works, and meeting the Bebel pickets, drove 
them in towards Vicksburo;. " Durins; the nio-ht of 
the 27th, the ground was reconnoitred as well as pos- 
sible, and it was found to be as difficult as it could 
possibl}^ be from nature and art. Immediately in front 
was a bayou, passable only at two points, on a narrow 
levee and on a sand-bar, which were perfectly com- 
manded by the enemy's sharpshooters that lined the 
levee or parapet on its opposite bank. Behind this 
was an irregular strip of beach or table-land, on which 
were constructed a series of rifle-pits and batteries ; and 
behind that a high abrupt range of hills, whose scarred 
sides were marked all the way up with rifle-trenches, 
and the crowns of the principal hills presented heavy 
batteries. The county-road leading from Vicksburg 
to Yazoo City ran along the foot of these hills, and 
served the enemy as a covered way along which he 
moved his artillery and infantry promptly to meet the 



CHIC AS AW BAYOU. 367 

Union forces at any point at which they attempted to 
cross this difficult bayou. Nevertheless, that bayou, 
with its levee-parapet backed by the lines of rifle-pits, 
batteries, and frowning hills, had to be passed before 
they could reach firm ground, and meet their enemy 
on anything like fair terms. 

" Steele, in his progress, followed substantially an 
old levee back from the Yazoo to the foot of the hills 
north of Tliompson's Lake, but found that in order to 
reach the hard land he would have to cross a Ions; 
corduroy causeway, with a battery enfilading it, others 
cross-firing it, with a similar line of rifle-pits and 
trenches before described. He skirmished with the 
enemy on the morning of the 28th, while the other 
columns were similarly engaged ; but on close and 
critical examination of the swamp and causeway in 
his front, with the batteries and rifle-pits well manned, 
he came to the conclusion that it was impossible for 
him to reach the county road without a fearful sacri- 
fice of life. 

" On his reporting that he could not cross from his 
position to the one occupied by the centre, Sherman 
ordered him to retrace his steps and return in steam- 
boats to the soutliAvest side of Chickasaw Bayou, and 
support Morgan s di\dsion. This he accomplished 
during the night of the 28th, arriving in time to sup- 
port him, and take part in the assault of the 29th."* 

Some sharp fighting occurred on the 28th, in con- 
sequence of the movements of the Union forces to take 
up favorable positions for assaulting the hostile works. 
* Sherman and his Campaigns, p. 83. 



368 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Time was very important. As yet,, Sherman had 
heard nothing from Grant, but supposed him to be 
moving southward and engaging Pemberton, and he 
determined, hy a vigorous and concentrated movement, 
to break the centre of the enemy's line, near Chickasaw 
Creek, and secure a lodgment on the bluffs. The 
morning of the 29th was appointed for the assault. 
It was gallantly made, but was unsuccessful. 

Gen. Blair bore himself with conspicuous gallantry 
in this engagement, and won the unqualified praise of 
his superior officers. The part taken by him is thus 
described by the correspondent of the New York Her- 
ald, who witnessed the fight : 

" General Morgan, at eleven o'clock a. m., sent 
word to General Steele that he was about ready for 
the movement on the hill, and wished the latter to 
support him with General Thayer's brigade. General 
Steele accordingly ordered General Thayer to move 
his brigade forward, and be ready for the assault. The 
order was promptly complied with, and General Blair 
received from General Morgan the order to assault the 
hill. The artillery had been silent for some time ; but 
Hoffman's Battery opened when the movement began. 
This was promptly replied to by the enemy, and taken 
up by Griffith's First Iowa Batter}', and a vigorous 
shelling was the result. By the time General Blair's 
brigade emerged from its cover of cypress forest, the 
shell were dropping fast among the men. A field bat 
tery had been in position in front of Hoffman s Bat- 
tery ; but it limbered up and moved awa}' beyond the 
heavy batteries and the rifle-pits. 



Blair's attack. 369 

" In front of the timber where Blair s Brigade had 
been lying was an abatis of young trees, cut off about 
three feet above the ground, and with the tops fallen 
promiscuously around. It took some minutes to pass 
this abatis, and by the time it was accomplished the 
enemy's fire had not been without effect. Beyond this 
abatis was a ditch fifteen or twenty feet deep, and with 
two or three feet of water in the bottom. The bottom 
of the ditch was a quicksand, in which the feet of the 
men commenced sinking, the instant they touched it. 
By the time this ditch was passed, the line was thrown 
into considerable confusion, and it took several min- 
utes to put it in order. All the horses of the ofiicers 
were mired in this ditch. Every one dismounted and 
moved up the hill on foot. 

" Beyond this ditch was an abatis of heavy timber 
that had been felled several months before, and, from 
being completely seasoned, was more difficult of pass- 
age than that constructed of the greener and more 
flexible trees encountered at first. These obstacles 
were overcome under a tremendous fire from the ene- 
my's batteries and the men in the rifle-pits. The line 
was recovered from the disorder into which it had 
been thrown by the passage of the abatis ; and, with 
General Blair at their head, the regiments moved for- 
ward ' upon the enemy's works.' The first movement 
Avas over a sloping plateau, raked by direct and enfi- 
lading fires from heavy artillery, and swept by a per- 
fect storm of bullets from the rifle-pits. Nothing 
daunted by the dozens of men that had already fallen, 
the brigade pressed on, and in a few moments had 
24 



370 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

driven the enemy from the first range of rifle-pits at 
the base of the hill, and were in full possession. 

"Halting but a moment to take breath, the bri- 
gade renewed the charge, and speedily occupied the 
second line of rifle-pits, about two hundred yards dis- 
tant from the first. General Blair was the first man 
of his brigade to enter. All this time the murderous 
fire from the enemy's guns continued. The batteries 
were still above this line of rifle-pits. The regiments 
were not strong enough to attempt their capture with- 
out a prompt and powerful support. For them it had 
truly been a march 

* Into the jaws of death — 
Into the mouth of hell.' 

"Almost simultaneously with the movement of 
General Blair on the left. Gen. Thayer received his 
command to go forward. He had previously given 
orders to all his re^^iments in column to follow each 
other whenever the first moved forward. He accord- 
ingly placed himself at the head of his advance regiment, 
the Fourth Iowa, and his order — ' Forward, Second 
Brio;ade ! ' — ran": out clear above the tumult. Colonel 
Williamson, commanding the Fourth Iowa, moved it 
off in splendid style. General Thayer supposed that 
all the otlier regiments of his brigade were following, in 
accordance with his instructions previously issued. He 
wound through the timber skirting the bayou, crossed 
at the same bridge where General Blair had passed but 
a few minutes before, made his way through the ditch 
and both lines of abatis, deflected the right and as- 
cended the sloping plateau in the direction of the rifle- 



BL air's attack. 371 

pits simultaneously with General Blair, and about two 
hundred yards to his right. 

" When General Thayer reached the rifle-pits, after 
hard fighting and a heavy loss, he found, to his horror, 
that only the Fourth Iowa had followed him, the 
wooded nature of the place having prevented his ascer- 
taining it before. Sadly disheartened, with little hope 
of success, he still pressed forward and fought his way 
to the second line, at the same time that General Blair 
reached it on the left. Colonel Williamson's regiment 
was fast falling before the concentrated fire of the 
rebels, and with an anxious heart General Thayer 
looked around for aid. 

" The rebels were forming three full regiments of 
infantry to move down upon General Thayer, and were 
a proportionately formidable force against General 
Blair. The rebel infantry and artillery were constantly 
in full play, and two heavy guns were raking the rifle- 
pits in several places. * * * * * 

" When General Blair entered the second line of 
rifle-pits, his brigade continued to pursue the enemy 
up the hill. The Thirteenth Illinois infantry was in 
the advance, and fought with desperation to win its 
way to the top of the crest. Fifty yards or more above 
the second line of rifle-pits is a small clump of willows, 
hardly deserving the name of trees. They stand in 
a cornfield, and from the banks of the bayou below 
present the appearance of a green hillock. To this 
copse many of the rebels fled when they were driven 
from the rifle-pits, and they were promptly pursued by 
General Blair's men. The Thirteenth met and en- 



372 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

gaged the rebels hand to hand, and in the encounter 
bayonets were repeatedly crossed. It gained the place, 
driving out the enemy ; but as soon as our men occu- 
pied it the fire of a field battery was turned upon them, 
and the place became too hot to be held." 

Believing that with reinforcements he could carry 
the entire position in his front, General Blair hurried 
to the foot of the blufi"to urge in person the despatch of 
fresh troops to his aid ; but the Confederates concentra- 
ted such a strong force of infantry and artillery in his 
front that it became plain that his command would 
be destroyed before assistance could reach him, and 
he reluctantly gave the order to retire down the hill. 
He brought off his troops slowly and successfully, 
being himself the last to leave the ground. 

Not disheartened by the failure of this assault, 
Sherman resolved to renew the attack on the 30th, but 
the next morning he found the enemy's lines too much 
strengthened and their force too much increased to 
allow him to hope for success, and the attack was 
abandoned. On the 31st Sherman sent in a flag of 
truce, asking permission to bury the dead, which was 
granted. An attack on Haines' Bluff was planned 
for the 1st of January, 1863, but given up in conse- 
quence of a dense fog which made it impossible to move 
the troops. Tlie expedition, after another disappoint- 
ment, was then abandoned, the troops were reembarked, 
and the fleet returned to Milliken's Bend, where, a 
day or two later, Sherman learned that the part assigned 
to General Grant in the plan for the capture of Vicks- 
burg, had been defeated by the surrender of Holly 



ARKANSAS POST. 373 

Springs to tlie Confederate cavalry, under Gen. Van 
Dorn, and the seizure of Granf s communications by 
them. 

General McClernand now arrived and relieved 
General Sherman of his command. He divided his 
army into two Corps, the command of one of which 
was given to General Sherman, the other to General 
Morgan. Gen. Blair's brigade continued to form a 
part of Sherman's corps, constituting the first brigade 
of the first (Steele's) division. 

On the 4th of January, 1863, the army of General 
McClernand embarked in its transports and, accom- 
panied by Admiral Porter's fleet, ascended the Arkan- 
sas Hiver for' the purpose of reducing Arkansas Post, 
a strong fortification on the left or north bank of that 
stream, about fifty miles above its mouth. The attack 
was opened by the gunboats on the 9th, and under 
the cover of this fire the troops were landed. The 10th 
was passed in taking up positions, and the assault was 
ordered for the morning of the 11th. Sherman was 
directed to open fire with all his batteries as soon as 
the gunboats should commence firing, and after a short 
cannonade to assault the enemy's works with Steele's 
and Stuart's divisions. He made his attack with vigor 
and compelled the surrender of the fort with its garri- 
son and armament. Blair's brigade, commanded by 
General Blair in person, led the advance of Steele's 
division, and was the first to encounter the enemy. It 
came in for a fair share of the hard fighting, and, with 
its gallant leader, won the unstinted praise of the whole 
army. 



374 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

After the destruction of the captured fort the ex- 
pedition returned to its old quarters at Milliken's Bend, 
where it was soon after joined by General Grant in 
person, who was followed by his whole army. Then 
began the final campaign against Vicksburg. 

For his gallantry and skill as displayed in the 
attacks upon the Chickasaw Bluffs. and Arkansas Post, 
General Blair was promoted to the grade of Major- 
General of Volunteers, to date from the 19th of 
November, 1862. During the month of April, 1863, 
Brig.-Gen. David Stuart, who had been commanding 
a division in Sherman's corps, resigned his commission 
in consequence of his appointment to the rank of 
Major-General not being confirmed by the Senate, and 
General Blair was given his division, wdiich he led 
through the ensuing campaign. 

General Blair participated in Sherman s feint upon 
the Yazoo batteries by which Grant covered his march 
down the Louisiana shore to Hard Times Bend. 
When Sherman was ordered to follow' Grant, General 
Blair was left v,^ith his division to hold the position at 
Milliken's Bend until he could be relieved by troops 
from Memphis. As soon as these arrived he moved to 
Hard Times Bend by a forced march, and crossing the 
river rejoined the army on the Mississippi shore. On 
the 14th of May, his division, temporarily under Gen. 
McClernand's orders, bivouacked at New Auburn. 
He did not rejoin Sherman in time to take part in the 
capture of Jackson, but acted with General McClernand 
until after the battle of Champion Hills. He rejoined 
Sherman with his di\dsion and the pontoon train, which 



THE ADVANCE UPON VICKSBURG. 375 

was the only one in the entire army, at Bridgeport, at 
noon on the 17th of May. That night he threw his 
pontoon bridges over the Big Black, after some slight 
opjDosition from the enemy, and his own and Steele's 
divisions at once crossed over, followed by Tuttle's in 
the morning. Sherman started off early on the morn- 
ing of the 18th, and marching rapidly towards Vicks- 
burg, gained the Benton Koad on the north side of the 
citv, and thrust his column between Vicksburfj; and the 
forts on the Yazoo. He then moved closer to the 
enemy's works on the north side of the city, halting 
only when his skirmishers were within musket range 
of them. Here he threw Blair's division in front of 
the works, with Tuttle's in support of it, and ordered 
Steele to follow a blind road to the right until he 
reached the Mississippi Kiver. The enemy in the 
Yazoo forts now finding themselves cut off from Vicks- 
burg and exposed to capture, abandoned those defences 
in the night, and on the morning of the 19th Sherman 
occupied them, and opened communication with the 
fleet of Admiral Porter. 

Believing that he could carry the town by a prompt 
attack, General Grant ordered an assault by his whole 
force on the enemy's works at noon on the 19th of 
May. The attack was gallantly made, but was a failure. 
General Blair's division took part in it, leading the 
advance of Sherman's line, and suffered heavily. 

A second assault was ordered by Grant for the 2 2d 
of May. This accomplished more than was gained in 
that of the 19th, but Grant failed to carry the enemy's 
line. The part borne by General Blair in this des- 



376 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

perate engagement will be seen from the following 
account of the operations of Sherman's corps : 

"In Sherman's corps, Blair s division was placed 
at the head of the road, Tattle's in support, and Gen- 
eral Steele was to make his attack at a point in his 
front about half a mile to the right. The troops were 
grouped so that the movement could be connected and 
rapid. The road lies on the crown of an interior ridge, 
rises over comparatively smooth ground along the edge 
of the ditch of the right face of the enemy's bastion, 
and enters the parapet at the shoulder of the bastion. 
No men could be seen in the enemy's works, except 
occasionally a sharpshooter, who would show his head 
and quickly discharge his piece. A line of picked 
skirmishers was placed to keep them do\vn. A volun- 
teer storming party of a hundred and fifty men led the 
column, carrying boards and poles to bridge the ditch. 
This, with a small interval, was followed in order by 
EAving's, Giles Smith's, and Kirby Smith's brigades, 
bringing up the rear of Blair's division. All marched 
by the flank, following a road by which the men were 
partially sheltered, until it was necessary to take the 
croAvn of the ridge and expose themselves to the full 
view of the enemy. The storming party dashed up 
the road at the double-quick, followed by Swing's 
brigade, the Thirtieth Ohio leading, while the artillery 
of Wood's, Barrett's, Waterhouse's, Spoor's, and Hart's 
batteries kept a concentric fire on the bastion to com- 
mand this approach. The storming party reached the 
salient of the bastion, and passed towards the sally- 
port. Then rose from every part commanding it a 



Blair's attack upon vicksburg. 377 

double rank of the enemy, and poured on tlie head of 
the column a terrific fire. It halted, wavered, and 
sought cover. The rear pressed on, but the fire was 
so hot that very soon all followed this example. The 
head of the column crossed the ditch on the left face 
of the bastion, and climbed up on the exterior slope. 
There the colors were planted, and the men burrowed 
in the earth to shield themselves from the flank fire. 
The leading brigade of Ewing being unable to carry 
that point, the next brigade of Giles Smith was turned 
down a ravine, and, by a circuit to the left, found 
cover, formed line, and threatened the parapet about 
three hundred yards to the left of the bastion ; while 
the brigade of Kirby Smith deployed on the further 
slope of one of the spurs, where, with Ewing's brigade, 
they kept up a constant fire against any object that 
presented itself above the parapet. ^ 

" About two p. M., General Blair having reported 
that none of his brigades could pass the point of the 
road swept by the terrific fire encountered by Ewing's, 
but that Giles Smith had got a position to the left in 
connection with General Ransom, of McPherson's 
corps, and was ready to assault, Sherman ordered a 
constant fire of artillery and infantry to be kept up to 
occupy the attention of tlie enemy in his front, while 
Ransom'^s and Giles Smith's brigades charged up 
against the parapet. They also met a staggering fire, 
before which they recoiled under cover of the hill-side. 
At the same time, while McPherson's whole corps was 
engaged, and having heard from General Grant Gen- 
eral McClernand's report, which subsequently proved 



378 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

inaccurate, that he had taken three of the enemy's 
forts, and that his flags floated on the stronghold of 
Vicksburo;, Sherman ordered General Tuttle at once to 
send to the assault one of his brigades. He detailed 
General Mower s, and while General Steele was hotly 
engaged on the right, and heavy firing could be heard 
all down the line to his left, Sherman ordered their 
charge, covered in like manner by Blair's division de- 
ployed on the hill-side, and the artillery posted behind 
parapets within point-blank range. General Mower 
carried his brigade up bravely and well, but met a fire 
more severe, if possible, than that of the first assault, 
with a similar result. The colors of the leading reg- 
iment, the Eleventh Missouri, were planted by the 
side of those of Blair's storming party, and there 
remained till withdra^^^l, after nightfall, by Sherman's 
orders. General Steele, with his division, made his 
assault at a point about midway between the bastion 
and the Mississippi River. The ground over which he 
passed was more open and exposed to the flank fire of 
the enemy's batteries in position, and was deeply cut 
up by guUeys and washes, but his column passed 
steadily through this fire, and reached the parapet, 
which was also found to be well manned and defended 
by the enemy. He could not carry the works, but 
held possession of the hill-side till night, when he 
withdrew his command to his present position. The 
loss in Sherman's corps in this attack was about six 
hundred killed and wounded." * 

Toward the last of May, it being reported to Gen. 

* Sherman and his Campaigns, 



THE BIG BLACK RECONNOISANCE. 379 

eral Grant that General Johnston was moving from 
Jackson to attack him, he resolved to send out a recon- 
noisance towards the Big Black to ascertain the posi- 
tion and probable designs of Johnston s army. The 
command of this expedition, by which much valuable 
information was gained and some important captures 
made, was given to General Blair. The Herald's cor- 
respondent thus describes it : 

" Information reaching the ears of the command- 
ing general, that Johnston, in possession of a consid- 
erable force, was moving towards the Big Black Biver 
with an intention of making a demonstration on our 
army now in the rear of Vicksburg, induced the move- 
ment of a sufficient body of troops in that direction, to 
meet the approaching enemy, if found as reported, and 
engage him before he could effect a crossing, or at 
every hazard to repel any attempt he might make to 
secure a foothold on this side. Accordingly, an expe- 
dition was sent out under General F. P. Bhiir, Jr., 
composed of men selected from each corps of the 
army, with their artillery and a command of cavalry. 
On the 27th of May, the party started on their mis- 
sion, and marching hastily towards Mechanicsburg, the 
cavalry in advance, when near that place, fell in with 
about one thousand men, partly of the Twentieth Mis- 
sissippi mounted infantry, commanded by Colonel 
Wirt Adams, and the rest, composed of detachments, 
all under command of General Adams. A brisk skir- 
mish ensued, resulting in forcing back our cavalry. 
The infantry was soon formed and thrown forward, and 
after a brief engagement the enemy left the field in haste. 



380 LIFE OF FRAKCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

" This affair being over, the troops pushed forward, 
scouring the country in all directions, seizing stock, 
bacon, and every other thing useful to the enemy. The 
advance marched within twenty miles of Yazoo City, 
without meeting any force, then struck across the coun- 
try and returned to take their part in the investment 
of Vicksburg. 

" The facts collected concerning the enemy were, 
that Johnston had at his call twenty thousand men at 
Canton, and a similar number at Jackson. This force 
was composed of very old and young men, all con- 
scripted for the occasion, and were without arms. His 
serv^iceable force did not number more than fifteen 
thousand, though by the inhabitants it is estimated 
much higher. 

•' The expedition returned, confident that no fears 
should be entertained of serious difficulty from the 
direction of the Big Black, at any rate for some time. 
His last experience had so intimidated the rebel gen- 
eral that there was little danger -of great boldness on 
his part, and so long as he remainded on the other side 
of the river. General Grant was informed that he 
need have no concern about him. Our cavalry was al- 
ways in movement in that direction, and kept close 
watch on all his plans. 

" The captures made during the expedition amount- 
ed to five hundred head of cattle, five hundred horses 
and mules, one hundred bales of cotton and ten 
thousand pounds of bacon. All bridges were either 
burned or demolished, and all forage destroyed. In 
a word, the country was divested of everything useful 
to the enemy." 



GEN. BLAIR COMMANDS THE ISXH CORPS. 381 

General Blair participated in Sherman's bold move- 
ment upon Johnston after the surrender of Vicks- 
burg, and in the second capture of Jackson. His servi- 
ces during the campaign were brilliant and most val- 
uable, and won the highest praise from his superiors. 
General Grant declared that " Frank Blair is the 
best volunteer officer in the Army." 

At the close of the campaign, General Blair ob- 
tained a brief furlough, and went North to attend 
to matters of a personal and private nature. 

He returned to the army in October, and was as- 
signed by General Sherman the charge of two divisions, 
rankino; next to Sherman himself, in command. Grant 
having ordered Sherman to join him at Chattanooga, 
General Blair was at once sent off with his corps 
to Corinth. Sherman joined him at that point on 
the 11th of October, and directed him to push for- 
ward to luka with the first and second divisions of 
Osterhaus and Morgan L. Smith, while he himself 
(Sheraian) remained behind a few days to hasten for- 
ward the troops as they came up, and superintend 
the repairs of the railroad. He joined Gen. Blair at 
luka on the 18th, and a few days later ordered him 
to drive the enemy out of Tuscumbia, Ala., and oc- 
cupy the place, which was successfully accomplished 
by Gen. Blair on the the 27th of October. 

On the 25th, Sherman having been given command 
of the Department of the Tennessee, assigned General 
Blair to the command of the Fifteenth Army Corps. 
Blair, as we have seen, having secured Tuscumbia, 
made preparations for protecting the passage of the 



382 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

army across the Tennessee, but as Sherman on the 
same day received a message from Grant to drop his 
work on the raih'oad, and march rapidly towards 
Bridgeport, all previous intentions were abandoned, 
and Sherman at once pushed forward with the advance 
to Eastport, leaving Gen. Blair to bring up the rear. 
The Tennessee was crossed at Eastport, and the Army 
after one of the most remarkable marches of the 
War, reached Bridgeport about the 16th of November. 

General Blair took part in the hard fought battle 
of Missionary Bidge, distinguishing himself greatly, 
and fully sustaining the wisdom of General Sherman 
in selecting him for the command of a corps. He 
joined in the pursuit of Bragg's forces, his corps lead- 
ing the advance, and on the 28th of November in- 
flicted great injury upon the Railway between Chat- 
tanooga and Atlanta. He also participated in the 
march to the relief of Knoxville, leading the advance 
with his corps. He was highly complimented by 
General Sherman for his service in this campaign, 
and was regarded by the Army and country generally, 
as one of the best and bravest commanders in the 
service. Notwithstanding this, however, at the close 
of the campaign, he was vv-ithout sufficient reason sud- 
denly superseded in the command of the corps he had 
led so gallantly. 

Secretary Stanton, acting upon his own authority, 
issued the order relieving Gen. Blair, and had the 
effrontery to declare that he did so " by order of the 
President." As soon as he heard of this, Mr. Lincoln 
called on Mr. Stanton to demand the revocation of 



ONE OF STANTON S OUTRAGES. 383 

the order, as lie had promised the command of the 
Corps to Gen. Blair. As the campaign was over, 
however, and the army about to go into winter quarters, 
he decided to ask Gen. Blair to give up the 15th Corps 
and take his seat in the new Congress, promising him 
a new and equally high command the next Spring. 
Gen. Blair, in deference to the wish of the President, 
concluded to do this. The conduct of the Secretary 
of War was most reprehensible in this case, as it was 
founded solely upon his political hostility to Gen. 
Blair, with whom Grant and Sherman were both well 
pleased 



CHAPTER IV. 

General Blair is Elected to Congress — Decides to be Guided by the Pres- 
ident's Wisbes — Letter of Mr. Lincoln — Takes bis Seat in tbe House — 
Sharp Attacks on him — His Bold Reply — Denunciation of the Abuses 
of the Government in the Border States — Denounces tbe Confisca- 
tion Bill — A Powerful Argument — Draws upon himself tbe Anger 
and Malice of tbe Extreme Radicals— They endeavor to Injure his 
Reputation — Charges against him in tbe House— He Denounces their 
Author as a Liar — Asks for an Investigation, which is Ordered — Is 
Triumphantly Acquitted — His Speech in bis own Defence — A Power- 
ful Vindication — Malice of bis Enemies — He Leaves the House and 
Returns to the Field — Tbe Radicals try to Deprive him of his Com- 
mand — Resolution in the House — Reply of the President — General 
Blair's Persecutors Defeated. 

General Blair had risen rapidly in the Army, 
and as his success had been the result of genuine 
merit, he had no wish to leave the service perma- 
nently, but, yielding to the wishes of his friends at 
home, he had allowed his name to be presented as a 
candidate for Congress from St. Louis, in the Fall 
elections of 1862, and had been triumphantly returned 
by his admiring constituents. When the time for the 
meetino; of Cono-ress drew near, he was in considerable 
doubt as to whether his duty to the country required 
him to leave the service and take his seat in Con- 
gress, or retain his commission and remain in the field. 
Some of his friends were anxious to have him in Con- 
gress, and it was intimated that if he would take his 
seat in that body he would surely be made speaker of 



LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT. 385 

the House. Finally,, in order to decide the doubt 
which perplexed him, General Blair decided to be 
guided by the wishes of the President, and requested 
his brother, the Hon. Montgomery Blair, who held a 
seat in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet as Post Master Gejieral, 
to say as much to the President. Thereupon Mr. Lin- 
coln addressed the following: letter to Mr. Blair : 



» 



" Executive Mansion, ) 
" Washington, Nov. 2cZ, 1863.' ) 
''''Hon. Montgomery Blair : 

" My DEAR Sir : Some days ago, I understood you 
to say that your brother, Gen. Frank Blair, desires to 
be guided by my wishes as to whether he will occupy 
his seat in Congress, or remain in the field. My wish, 
then, is compounded of what I believe will be best for 
the country ; and it is, that he will come here, put his 
military commission in my hands, take his seat, go 
into caucus with our friends, abide the nomination&, 
help elect the nominees, and thus organize a House of 
Representatives which will really support the Govern- 
ment in the War, If the result shall be the election 
of himself as Speaker, let him serve in that position. 
If not, let him re-take his commission and return to 
the army for the benefit of the country. 

"This will heal a dangerous schism for him. It 
will relieve him from a dangerous position, or a mis- 
understanding, as I think he is in danger of being 
permanently separated from those with whom only he 
can ever have a real sympathy — the sincere opponents 
of slavery. 
25 



380 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

" It will be a mistake if he shall allow the pro- 
vocations offered him by insincere time-servers to 
drive him from the house of his own building. He 
is young yet. He has abundant talents — quite enough 
to occupy all his time without devoting any to 
temper. 

" He is rising in military skill and usefulness. His 
recent appointment to the command of a corps, by one 
so competent to judge as Gen. Sherman, proves this. 
In that line he can serve the country and himself more 
profitably than he could as a member of Congress 
upon the floor. 

" The foregoing is what I would say if Frank 
Blair was my brother instead of yours. 

[Signed] "A. Lincoln." 

In accordance with this request, Gen. Blair left 
the Army just after the relief of Knoxville, and went 
to Washington. He took his seat in the House on 
the 12th of January, 1864, as Representative from the 
St. Louis District. 

On the 23d of February, 1864, in reply to certain 
attacks made upon him by one of his colleagues. Gen. 
Blair addressed the House at considerable length, ad- 
ministerins; a scathino; rebuke to those who were seek- 
in;r to lead the Administration into the most unwar- 
rantable excesses, and denouncing and exposing their 
outrages and frauds in Missouri and Maryland. 

On the 5th of February, the bill for confiscating 
the property of persons in rebellion against the authority 
of the United States being under consideration, Gen. 



BOLD SPEECH OF GEN. BLAIR. 387 

Blair addressed the House at considerable lenjrth. 
In the course of his remarks, he said : 

" There is some discussion as to the authority of the 
President under the Constitution to make certain pro- 
clamations, giving ejffect to public sentiment upon this 
subjecti I shall not pause to debate this question. I 
have heaxd enough and seen enough to convince me 
that if any other sanction or guarantee is required, it 
will not be withheld. If a constitutional prohibition 
of slavery in all the States and Territories of the Union 
is considered essential, it will be conceded by the con- 
sent of the southern States themselves ; and if I am 
not greatly mistaken, such an amendment ■will be sup- 
ported by the Democratic party of the northern States 
as soon as it is seen that it is desired by the Union 
men of the South. The President, in my judgment, 
expressed more clearly the sense of the entire nation 
in his proclamations than was supposed by either those 
who most applauded or those who denounced the act. 
The pledge which he gave to use all his efforts to com- 
pensate the loyal owners of slaves, vrhich was ignored 
by one class and distrusted by the other, was, in my 
opinion, the pledge of the nation, and will be re- 
deemed. It was an act too grand and noble to be 
stained by any leaven of injustice or dishonesty. 

" If the judgment of the nation in condemning sla- 
very as the cause of the rebellion is correct, and I am 
not mistaken in the belief that it is irrevocably doomed 
to destruction, then it is safe to assume that the great 
obstacle to the restoration of the Union has been sub- 
stantially removed, and that as our victorious armies 



388 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

advance, drivins: back into narrower limits the or<]fau- 
ized armies of the rebels, the States will resume their 
places in the Union which has rescued them from 
usurpation, purged by their own consent of that ele- 
ment which alone suiDplied a motive for disunion. 

" I am well aware that, many do not assent to this 
mode of settlement for our difficulties and for the res 
toration of the Union ; but I believe that this is the 
plan which the people have resolved upon, and which 
is now working itself out in spite of opposition from 
men of ability and influence who take a different view 
of the question. The President has unquestionably 
marked out this policy, and in so doing has the sanc- 
tion and support of a vast majority of the loyal people 
of the country. 

" The discussion upon the pending resolution has 
brought out very distinctly the grounds of opposition 
to this policy, and disclosed the quarter from which 
that opposition comes. The proposition is simply to 
repeal the joint resolution of the last Congress, by 
which the confiscation of landed estates of persons in 
rebellion was limited to the life of the offender ; but it 
makes a distinct issue with the President upon one 
point of the policy he has adopted for his guidance, 
and which he has made known in the most solemn 
and authentic manner ; and the debate upon it has 
disclosed a determination upon the part of leading men 
of his own party to make an issue vrith. him upon all 
points of his policy, and either compel him to yield or 
to divide the party which has hitherto supported him. 

" To the President is confided the whole military 



CONFISCATION DENOUNCED. 389 

power of the country to save its Government from 
overthrow by rebellion. Those who wage war to ac- 
complish that overthrow commit treason. The punish- 
ment for that crime on conviction it is expressly de- 
clared in the Constitution shall be prescribed by Con- 
gi'ess ; but it is provided that ' no attainder of treason 
■shall icork corruption of blood, or forfeiture except 
during the life of the person attainted.'' Capital pun- 
ishment, the death penalty, in this as in other countries, 
has been in all time applied to treason. The head 
that plots and attempts the destruction of the Govern- 
ment is always forfeited to the society that looks to its 
Government for preservation. In England and other 
monarchies condemnation for treason not only forfeits 
the head but the landed as well as personal estate of 
the offender. 

"This visited the sin of the traitor upon his inno- 
cent heirs, and was the device of monarchs to hedge 
around their life and cro^\'^l by suj)eradding to the 
terror in conspirators the fear of sacrificing the digni- 
ties, influence, and wealth of their posterity by the loss 
of inheritance, imputing it to corruption of blood to 
degrade a race and name. The motives of monarchs 
prompting such unjust and cruel inflictions upon blame- 
less and helpless heirs of one condemned to expiate by 
death the offense imputed to him do not belong to our 
Republic. It does not, like the crowned head, appre- 
hend that the stroke of an assassin may terminate, 
with one life, the safety and peace of a people. Nor 
has it favorites to pamper with the estates of victims 
when they may conspire to sacrifice as traitors to quiet 



390 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

the fears of a dynasty into whose ear they whisper. 
Multitudes of illustrious public men have perished and 
their families been ruined under the Governments from 
which our laws have been mainly derived, upon con- 
structive, unfounded, or ill-proved charges of treason, 
originating in the desire of the reigning favorites of 
the court to destroy those whom they have supplanted, 
and to create support for themselves and their follow- 
ers by the confiscation of the estates of rivals whom 
their intrigues brought to the block. 

'• It Avas these horrid traojedies of the Enojlish his- 
tory of treasons that induced the authors of our Con- 
stitution to insert so precise a definition of treason ; 
and in providing for its punishment to declare 'it 
should 7iot work corruption of bloody or forfeiture ex- 
cept during the life of the person attained.'' The first 
act of Congress passed in virtue of this article pre- 
scribed the punishment of death for treason, and added 
the exception in the words of the Constitution in su- 
perabundant caution to exclude by legislative enact- 
ment the consequence of a condemnation of treason 
which the common law of England had drawn with it 
as a part of the code of our country. 

" The Federalist — the Avork of Jay, Hamilton, and 
Madison — a more authoritative commentary on our 
Constitution than Blackstone's on the laws of England, 
had pointed to this article as a bar to such Congi^es- 
sional interpretation as was given in the bill submitted 
for the President's approval at the last session. It was 
the security given by the Constitution to save the un- 
ofFendini]c heirs of condemned criminals from that for- 



CONFISCATION DENOUNCED. 391 

feiture of estates so apt to be voted in heated party 
times by parliamentary majorities, and so the sages of 
the Federalist say the clause meant to abate the mischief 
by the limitation to ' the life of the person attainted.'' 

" The President entertained the view of this pro- 
vision sactioned by Congress and all the jurists of the 
country up to the passage of the bill presented to him 
by the last Congress. Then he was constrained to ex- 
press the opinion contained in the message in which he 
communicated his reasons for approving that bill, be- 
cause it was coupled with the enactment of a resolu- 
tion embodying the terms of the constitutional limita- 
tion. But now it is attempted to repeal the resolution 
which adjusted the conflicting views of the executive 
and legislative departments in regard to the confisca- 
tion act, and if successful m Congress, the demand is 
to be made of the President that he resign his consti- 
tutional convictions, and strike from the law what he 
deemed essential to make it compatible with the Con- 
stitution and his oath to support it. And how is this 
demand justified ? There stands the letter and spirit 
of the Constitution, an insurmountable obstacle to 
concession on the part of the President ; but the new- 
fangled doctrinaries seeing the hopelessness of strain- 
ing the simple terms of the Constitution to justify 
the extension of confiscation 'beyond the life of the 
person attainted^ nevertheless now urge expedients to 
accomplish that object. 

:i: * * * :•: :•: * * 

" The House will bear with me a little, while I ex- 
amine the details by which the gentlemen and the 



392 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 



President reach the same general grounds of recon- 
struction. 

" The gentleman [Mr. Stevens] begins by asserting 
that the usurj^ers have by force of arms become an in- 
dependent power de facto. The gentleman pretends 
that the President has acknowledo^ed the rebels as bel- 
ligerents and entitled to the immunities of a foreign 
Power engaged with the United States in war. 

" So far from this being true, the President has 
manifested dissatisfaction that England and France 
have, by acknowledging the rebels as belligerents, 
favored these pirates, although at the same time they 
disavow the conclusion drawn from it by the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania, that they are an independent and, 
as regards the United States, a foreign power. 

" The gentleman declares the confederates out of 
the Union and not subject to the Constitution and the 
laws of the United States. 

" The President, on the contrar}^, holds that they 
are in the Union ; that he will hold them to it, as 
liable to all the penalties of treason, under the form 
and under the restrictions prescribed in the Constitu- 
tion and laws. 

" The gentleman insists that the heirs of rebels can 
claim no interest in the confiscated estates of parents 
condemned for treason, although the reversion is ex- 
pressly reserved for them under the clause of the Con- 
stitution that the punishment under condemnation for 
treason shall not extend to forfeiture of estates except 
for the life of the person attainted. 

" Fer contray the President holds that the law which 



CONFISCATION DENOUNCED. 393 

passed without this saving clause for the heirs violated 
the Constitution, and Congress inserted the provision 
to comply with his opinion, which was embodied in a 
message to the House, giving his sanction to the modi- 
fied bill. 

"Here I stop a moment to inquire whether the 
President has, ' after careful examination^ come to the 
conclusion ' to retract the opinion declared in this mes- 
sage. If not, why the attempt to repeal the constitu- 
tional saving inserted in the act by the last Congress ? 
It looks like an attempt to play into the hand of some 
rival who would array a party against the President 
to drive him to surrender his convictions and break 
his oath to support the Constitution, or, by maintain- 
ing his convictions and his oath, draw on the embar- 
rassment of an opposition, disappomted of their scheme 
of monopolizing inheritances at the expense of the 
public interests. Certainly nothing could be worse for 
the Government and the masses of our countrymen 
than that the great landed estates should fall ai2:ain into 
the mortmain of great capitalists. By being divided 
up in small lease-holds among the laboring soldiers of 
the war, the result would be either compromises be- 
tween the lease-holders and the heirs in reversion — the 
first giving immediate possession of a part of his hold- 
ing to the heir as a price for the fee simple of what he 
retained — or the lease-holder during the life of the 
rebel owner forfeiting it would realize out of the prod- 
uct of his tenement means to purchase a freehold of a 
portion. This sort of division between industrious 
lease-holders and heirs would be beneficial to both. 



394 LIFE OF FEANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

The one would be stimulated to industry aid economy, 
the other by the increased value imparted to the prop- 
erty ultimately retuming by subdivision among a mul- 
titude of intelligent, active, thriving, though temporary 
owners, v/ho, once having taken root in the soil, would 
endeavor by utmost effort to make the means of render- 
ino- their possession permanent. The presence of such 
a population in the rich lands of the South would surely 
enhance their value. The forfeiting rebel refugee 
would find an advantage in having a great community 
interested in his long life, which would result probably 
in arrangements meliorating his condition. 

" But to continue the details which, according to 
the speech of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, bring 
him and the President to the same general grounds i]n 
closing the conflict. 

"The gentleman, assuming that it is a war of for- 
eign States, adds : ' By the laws of ivar the conqueror 
may seize and convert to his oivn use everything that 
belongs to the enemy ;'' and by the enemy he says ex- 
pressly he means every man, woman, and child who 
now remain in the Confederate States, including those 
who are loyal. 

"The President in all his proclamations touching 
this subject shows that he holds sacred the law of 
nations as expounded by Wheaton; confiscating no 
lands but such as are forfeited by treason ; no personal 
propert}' even in virtue of conquest, except slaves, who 
are taken from the hands of the enemy as instru- 
ments of warfare, and liberated with a pledge of re- 
muneration to loyal owners for then* loss, and in- 



CONFISCATION DENOUNCED. 395 

demnity for injuries that they may receive from our 
armies. 

"The gentleman holds that the State governments 
now under the usurpation, although recognized and 
established as part of the Union by the Constitution 
and the laws made in conformity with it, are ''abol- 
ished^^ and ' iL'e may Iwld them in subjection and legis- 
late for them as a conquered people.'' 

" The President holds no such doctrine, but directly 
the reverse. He looks upon the Constitution of the 
United States, and the constitutions of all the States 
heretofore recognized by it, as still subsisting, all uni- 
ting to establish, as written characters and muniments 
of title, a right to that eminent domain and political 
supremacy which the national Government holds over 
this whole country. The President, in virtue of mili- 
tary power which, as the representative of the supremacy 
of the United States, he is called by the Constitution 
to exert to save it and the Government, the State con- 
stitutions and their governments, has struck down 
slavery in certain sections, upon the principle on which 
the enemies of these States and constitutions are struck 
down in battle-fields. What has thus perished in the 
war, ceases to be a part of the institutions which have 
existence sanctioned by any Constitution, State or 
national. The President's plan of reconstruction takes 
this ground in the instructions given to General Steele 
to carry it out on the petition of the people of Arkan- 
sas. In that instruction he lays it down ^ that it be 
assumed at the election,'' (proposed by the people,) UiTid 
thenceforward, that the Constitution and laws of the 



396 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

State as hefore the rebellion are in full force^ except 
that the Constitution is so modified as to declare that 
the?x shcdi he neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
except in punishment for crimes whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted.'' 

" The gentleman asserts that ' it is mochery to say 
that according to any p)rincip)le of popidar government 
yet established a title of the resident inhabitants of an 
organized State can change its fomn and carry on gov- 
ernmeyit because they are more holy or more loyal than 
other s."* 

" The President holds that men disloyal and hostile 
to a Government, dishabilitated by the commission of 
treason to exercise the rights of citizens, abdicate their 
place in the Government, and devolve its administration 
on the loyal portion ; and he has ascertained from the 
precedents in the State governments that a population 
equal to one-tenth of the whole number existing in any 
State are adequate to its administration. He there- 
fore, when desired by them, invdtes elections in the 
several States freed from the armies of the rebellion, 
to ascertain whether a title of the loyal population 
remain to supersede by civil government under the 
republican constitutions that belong to them, the mili- 
tary administration imposed by the necessities of war. 

" The gentleman proposes to supersede pojDular 
elections by the loyal people of a State to renew the 
action of their republican institutions, by the Roman 
military law for conquered countries, 'i'^ nctis,' woe 
to the vanquished, thus ignoring national kw as ame- 
liorated in modern times amono; civilized Christian 



CONFISCATION DENOUNCED. 397 

nations, and abolishing the State governments which 
the President by his oath of office and the national 
Government he administers is bound to guarantee. 

"The President on his part resolves to respect his 
own and the good faith of the nation ; he recognizes 
the existing governments held in abeyance for a time 
by rebel arms, the rights of loyal citizens suffering 
under them, opens to all such access to the blessings 
of the Union throuojh a renewal of their alle<2;iance. and 
tendering to the mass of those who were forced into 
the rebel ranks by the betrayal of false functionaries 
wielding the power in the State and national Govern- 
ments the healing measure of an amnesty — the felon 
conspirators and agitators, the authors of our calami- 
ties, being excluded. 

" The gentleman from Pennsylvania a.ssumes ' that 
if you uiere to liberate every slave now^ and then re- 
admit them as free States, the moment they had acquired 
that standing they icould reestablish slavery and en- 
slave every colored man within their limits^ 

" The President denies this ; holds that the freed- 
men are under the protection of the arm to ^\ liich they 
owe their liberties, has taken the precaution, with the 
sanction of Congress, to place them beyond State juris- 
diction, and to assure them in the meantime of a safe- 
guard under such an organization, with the national 
force, as will preclude all apprehension of the danger 
suo;:2;ested. 

CO 

" This parallel, in my opinion, is a fair expose, 
showing that the gentleman looks to reconstruction on 
quite a different basis from that of the President. He 



398 LIFE OF FRANCIS ?. BLAIR, JR. 

admits that in details they do not quite agree, but as- 
sumes that they come to the ''same general grounds ;^ 
that is, that ' his (the President's) pla7i is ivholly out- 
side of and unknown to the Constitution.'* It is thus 
that he would make the President take the responsi- 
bility of the secession, abolition, absolute-conquest doc- 
trine he [Mr. Stevens] broaches in defiance of national 
and State Constitutions, the law of the civilized world, 
and of all humanity. I take my stand on the Lincoln 
platform." 

Having drawn upon himself the hostility of the ex- 
treme Padicals by his bold denunciations of their uncon- 
stitutional schemes. General Blair soon had proof that 
they M'ould spare no effort to get him out of the House. 
On the 23d of March, Mr. McClurg, of Missouri, 
charged him with having abused his power as an offi- 
cer of the army, for the purpose of aiding and encour- 
aging unlawful speculations. He promptly denounced 
the charge as a base and miserable falsehood, and pro- 
nounced its author "an infamous liar and scoundrel;" 
and asked for a committee to investio-ate the charire, 
with power to send for persons and papers. 

A Committee, consisting of Messrs. Higby, Brutus 
J. Clay, and Pruyn, were appointed by the Speaker, 
and the matter fully investigated. On the 23d of 
April, the Committee made their report to the House, 
fully exonerating Gen. Blair from the charge brought 
against him. The following is their report : 

" The undersigned, Xh^ Special Committee appoint- 
ed under the resolution of the House of the 23d of 
March last to investigate the charge made by Hon. J. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 399 

W. McClurg, a member of the House from the State 
of Missouri, against Hon. F. P. Blair, Jr., also a 
member of the House from the same State, ' of vio- 
lating the laws in the matter of an alleged liquor spec- 
ulation, and to inquire into the genuineness or falsity 
of the alleged order for the purchase of liquor, bearing 
date June 3, 1863,* respectfully report that they have 
had the matter so referred to them under investigation 
from an early day after their appointment, and have 
given full opportunity to both parties to produce wit- 
nesses before them, and taken all the testimony oflfered 
on the subject. The depositions of the witnesses thus 
examined are herewith submitted to the House. 

" It appeared satisfactorily in evidence before the 
Committee that on the 3d day of June, 1863, Hon. F. 
P. Blair, Jr., then being a major-general in the Army 
of the United States in actual service near Vicksburg, 
in the State of Mississippi, together with eight mem- 
bers of his staff, signed a written order or authority to 
one Michael Powers, representing himself to be an 
agent of the Treasury Department, and who had offered 
his services for the purpose, to procure for their own 
use a veiy moderate amount of liquors, tobacco, and 
cigars, the cost of which, in the language of one of the 
witnesses, (Captain Maguire,) 'certainly would not 
exceed one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sev- 
enty-five dollars.' 

" This order, as it appeared before the Committee, 
was altered after it was delivered to Powers, by adding 
to and changing the figures, and also by adding at least 
one new item, (twenty-five boxes can-fruits,) to such an 



400 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

extent that the invoice on the purchase of the articles 
in St. Louis, and a permit for which was granted by 
the collector, amounted to $8,651. As a specimen of 
the alterations one may be referred to, that as to 
brandy. The original order was for five gallons ; by 
inserting the figure 2 before the figure 5, and adding 
the word ' each,' it became an order (as nine persons 
had signed it) for two hundred and twenty-five gallons. 
The alterations which the Committee believe, from the 
testimony taken before them, to have been made in the 
order, will be seen on reference to schedule A hereto 
annexed, which contains a copy of the existing order, 
and a statement at the foot thereof of the articles named 
in the original order as nearly as the Committee can 
determine from the evidence before them. 

" As to the question by whom these alterations 
were made, the Committee refer particularly to the 
depositions of Mr. Powers and Mr. Howard, which 
are among those herewith submitted. Judging from 
all the circumstances, they were probably made for the 
purpose of realizing a profitable speculation under 
cover of the original order. That they were made by 
Powers, there cannot from the testimony be any rea- 
sonable doubt. 

"At the time the order was delivered to Powers, 
there was no law or military regulation in any way 
prohibiting it. 

" The Committee are therefore of the opinion, and 
do report, that no violation of law was committed in 
the premises by General Blair, and that the original 
order was altered and falsified after it had passed from 



GEN. BLAIR EXONERATED. 401 

his possession and control, in the manner hereinbefore 
stated. 

" The undersigned, the chairman of the Committee, 
for himself deems it proper to state that the replies of 
Mr. Blair in the House to the charges of Mr. McClurg, 
all of which have been under investigation before the 
Committee, are not sustained by the evidence, except 
as to his denial of being engaged in a liquor specula- 
tion, and of the genuineness of the order in question. 
In this statement the other members of the Committee 
do not concur — the member from Kentuckv for the 
reason that his conclusions from the testimony are the 
opposite of those of the chairman ; and the member 
from New York (who was absent while most of this 
part of the evidence was taken) for the reason that he 
does not consider the subject embraced in the resolu- 
tion appointing the Committee, and that they are not, 
in his judgment, called on to express any opinion in 
regard to it. 

"The Committee having thus completed the duties 
assigned to them, respectfully ask to be discharged 
from the further consideration of the subject. 

"Wm. Higby, Chairman. 
'' Brutus J. Clay, 
" John V. L. Pruyn." 

Upon the presentation of this report. General Blair 
addressed the House at some length. The statement 
made by him was as follows : 

" Mr. Speaker, I am as loth as any other member 
to consume the time so necessary for the public busi- 
26 



402 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

ness, but the use whicli has been made of this affair is 
of such an extraordinary character, so malicious and 
unjust to me, that I have been compelled to appeal to 
my fellow-members for the privilege of making a few 
observations, and to ask their indulo-ent attention at 
this time. 

" It is shown b}' the report which has just been 
read in your hearing, that when this ' forgery ' was 
committed I was in the service of the country, and in 
the trenches before Vicksburg, using my utmost efforts 
for the preservation of our country and to beat do"\\Ti 
its enemies. When it was made public and circulated 
far and wide in the newspapers for the purpose of des- 
troying my reputation, I was again absent from my 
home and in command of the Fifteenth Army Corps, 
leading its gallant soldiers on the march from Mem- 
phis to Chattanooga, to share in that memorable con- 
flict which drove Bragg from his stronghold on the 
heights of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Kidge, 
and afterwards to the relief of our beleaguered army 
at Knoxville. 

" I hope it will not be regarded as indelicate or 
improper for me, under the circumstances in which I 
have been placed by this gross and unjust asj^ersion 
and the consequences which followed, to allude to the 
fact that I was assigned to that command by General 
Sherman, whose corps it was, until he was promoted 
to the command of the army and department of the 
Tennessee, and that after that most eventful campaign 
of marches and battles, as glorious as any recorded in 
our military annals, I was complimented in general 



A PERSONAL EXPLANATION. 403 

orders, and received the thanks of my commanding 
general for the manner in which I had handled the 
corps ; yet, at the end of that campaign, I. found my- 
self superseded in the command. 

"Now, sir, if the allegation which had been made 
against me, when absent and in the service, had been 
true, it would have formed a just ground for my re- 
moval. I should have been unfit to command any 
portion of the gallant and patriotic troops of my 
country. 

" Finding myself superseded in a command of which 
I was so justly proud, and unconscious of having com- 
mitted any offense which should have subjected me to 
such a mortification, I came here to resume my seat 
in this House, to which I had been returned by a con- 
tiding constituency, and which I had left eighteen 
months before, at the solicitation of the Administra- 
tion, to raise and command troops for the defense of 
the country. But the malignity of those who had ori- 
ginated and propagated this atrocious slander against 
me was not satisfied with the humiliation I had suf- 
fered in the loss of my command ; it pursued me into 
this House. The House will remember the occasion 
when a member from my own State arose and reitera- 
ted this calumny. I repelled it at the time in language 
decorous and parliamentary, so far as the member him- 
self was concerned, not knowing but that he had been 
misled by those who had originated and circulated the 
slander, but at the same time denouncing it as a for- 
gery, perpetrated by a person in the employ of the 
Treasury Department, who had himself since admitted 



404 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

that the order was altered and was therefore a forgery, 
and that it was printed in a newspaper which was pen- 
sioned by the Secretary of the Treasury. The gentle- 
man, or, rather, the member who made that allegation 
at that time, having my denial before him, having the 
admission of the Treasury agent, Bonner, having the 
published declaration of the surveyor of the port of 
St. Louis, Mr. Howard, pronouncing it a forgery, and 
also having the paper in his hand which showed pal- 
pably upon its face that it had been altered, came 
into this House to renew that allegation upon a sub- 
sequent occasion, and with that coarseness and bruta- 
lity which is characteristic of vulgar minds — ''•'' 

" I say, sir, that this member was not content to 
reassert the charjre arainst me of havins; violated the 

O O CD 

laws of the country, and of prostituting the office I held 
in the service of the country for the purpose of specu- 
lation, but he did it in an insultino; and irritatino; man- 
ner, and made everj- effort to provoke me, in the man- 
ner in whi«Ji he brought it to the attention of the 
House ; and upon that occasion, I say again, I felt 
myself so indignant at the charge made, and at the 
manner in which it was made by that member, that I 
found it impossible to restrain myself, and used lan- 
guage for which I am willing to apologize to the House, 
but for which I shall never apologize to him. 

" Sir, he had the forged order i^hotogTaphcd, and 
brought it thus prepared for circulation to the atten- 
tion of the House, and proclaimed that he was 

* The Speaker at this point called Geu. Blair to order. 



A SHARP REPLY. 405 

ready to distribute them, and that others could 
be had cheaply at the jDhotographing establishment 
at which it was taken. I do not know where that 
photograph was made — whether it was in the Treas- 
ury Department or not. I believe they have ma- 
chinery of that kind there. It is not the first time in 
the history of the world in which the fine arts have 
been prostituted to this base and ignoble purpose, that 
of perpetuating and disseminating counterfeits. I con- 
gratulate myself, however, that while the art of photo- 
graphing has been applied to such purposes, it has also 
been made useful in the detection of the rogues, crim- 
inals, and counterfeiters who have basely prostituted 
the art. You can find, sir, in an}^ of the police ofiices 
of the country a ' rogue's gallery,' in which the effigies 
of those eminent for their crimes and rascalities are 
exposed for the purpose of re-cognition and detection. 
I intend following that suggestion, to enlarge upon the 
idea. I will have that ' order ' re-photographed, and 
I will have it decorated and garnished with the por- 
traits of the forgers and disseininators of the forgeiy, 
so as to perpetuate their memories and villainies in 
connection with this specimen of their art. 

" Now, sir, it is not my puqDOse to follow these 
men who have been guilty of this baseness toward me 
any further. These dogs have been set on me by their 
master, and since I have whipped them back into their 
kennel, I mean to hold their master responsible for this 
outrage and not the curs who have been set upon me. 
The evidence, sir, shows that this forgery was made 
public by a Treasury agent wlio knew at the time that 



406 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

he made it public, tha$ I had no interest whatever in 
the <xoods covered by the order ; Avho knew it so well 
that the ^oods havinsi: been seized he turned them over 
to their proper ov/ner, because there was no ground 
for their seizure and confiscation. He turned them 
over to the man who appeared oil the paper to own 
them, nnd jet he retained in his hand this paper, to 
which he had no right, and gave it out for publication 
after I had been assailed in the newspapers of my city, 
for speculating in this whisky. He gave it out for pub- 
lication after he knew the facts of the case and had had 
his attention called to them, because I had attacked Mr. 
Chase in a speech in St. Louis and assailed his trade 
regulation. So, sir, if any officer of the Army, or 
any member of Congress, or any gentleman feels 
sufficient interest in public affairs, and in the honest 
conduct of public business to assail in a public speech 
its management in the Treasury and the operation 
of Treasury regulations, he lays himself open to as- 
saults from the Secretary of the Treasury and all the 
hounds and dogs that he can set upon him. and he is 
to be hunted and dragged down by false charges and 
by forgery. 

" It is for tlie House to decide whether one of its 
members, in the face of the tacts which were brought 
to his knowledge when he first made these charges on 
this floor, shall be permitted to reiterate in a manner 
so gross and offensive that which he utterly failed to 
substantiate when put to tlie test, and escape without 
censure. It is for the members of the House to decide 
whether such a person is worthy of association with 
them or not. 



J 
I 

t 



A BOLD SPEECH. 407 

" When I resumed my seat in this House, I felt 
myself constrained by a sense of duty to my constitu- 
ents to ask for a committee to investigate the manner 
in which the ' regulations of trade ' with the States in 
insurrection have been carried out by the Secretary of 
the Ti'easury. But it seems that the Secretary's friends 
had not the same confidence in a committee of Con- 
gress as I have shown, for when I asked for a com- 
mittee to investig-ate the charsres which had been made 
against the Secretar}^, of sacrificing a vast public in- 
terest to advance his ambition, his friends upon this 
floor refused it, and I was assailed in all the news- 
papers of the country with having made that allega- 
tion against the Secretary because he had stopped my 
' liquor speculation.' 

"Now, Mr. Speaker, permit me to say that when 
the Secretary of the Treasury was advanced to his 
present position, although m.y good wishes were ^rorth 
nothinjj; to him at the time, vet he had them. I was 
in favor of his appointment. As a matter of course, 
that was of very little consequence so far as his ap- 
pointment was concerned, yet it is a fact well known. 
It is of consequence simply so far as it shows that I 
was not inimical at that time to the Secretarj-. The 
reason of my change of sentiment toward him was, that 
[ understood that he had authorized the Mayor of Bal- 
timore to proclaim on the streets of that city, on the 
19th of April, that he was in favor of letting the States 
in rebellion 'go in peace,' and because I also took this 
impression from the tenor of his conversation that it 
was his opinion and wish that they should be allowed 



408 LIFE OF FEANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

to go in peace. I understood the same thing from the 
publications made by newspapers in his o^Aai State 
which were regarded as expressing his sentiments. 
The allegation was made that such was his position, 
and it was never denied by him. It was accepted as 
a fact by all. 

" I know, and he ivill not deny his written and rcr 
corded opinion, that he was opposed to the reinforce- 
ment of Fort Sumter. I knew that after Fort Sumter 
had fallen, he had opposed the calling out of a large 
and sufficient force to put down the rebellion, and 
although he and others of the men of his party and 
my party then (but I hold no party relations then or 
noiv with peace men) were compelled by the war cry 
that went up after the fall of Sumter to abandon appa- 
rently their peace position. Yet Mr. Chase, I soon 
found, never really abandoned his determination to 
cut off the Southern States. On the contrary, he has 
endeavored to work out, by another programme, the 
very thing he was then in favor of doing — of letting 
the South go. He is now for making them go, so far 
as their condition as States is concerned. He is -un- 
willing that they should ever return to interfere with 
his presidential aspirations. 

"Why, Sir, it was perfectly understood in the 
second session — the long session — of the last Congress, 
that he favored the annihilation of the State Govern- 
ments of the South. His friends in both Houses 
made that proposition ; those who had the most inti- 
mate relations with him in both Houses made that 
proposition. And it is pressed in this House again 



i 



A SCATHINa REBUKE. 409 

this winter in a disguised and insidious form, and un- 
der the pretentious title of ' reconstruction,' but which 
is in fact intended for the destruction of those States ; 
but this being the very crime of which tlie rebels in 
arms are guilty, and which the gentleman from Ohio 
[Mr. Ashley] charges upon them, it is thought con- 
venient to give the operation another name. The bill 
reported by the distinguished gentleman from Mary- 
land []Mr. Davis], representing the committee on the 
rebellious States, which, by the vray, is composed to a 
considerable extent of the Poraeroy private circular 
committee, for I understand that the gentlemen from. 
Maryland [Mr. Davis], from Ohio []Mr. Ashley], and 
from Missouri [Mr. Blow], are members of both these 
committees, is a bill which could very properly have 
come from the Pomeroy committee. It is a bill which 
should have been entitled ' a bill for the permanent 
dissolution of the Union, to disfranchise the whites 
and enfranchise the negroes, to prevent any of the 
States from coming back in time to vote for Mr. Lin- 
coln for President, and to promote the ambition of the 
Secretary of the Treasury.' It is a bill which requires 
the consent of Cono-ress for the readmission of anv of 
these States to the Union. 

"The gentlemen proceed in their disfranchising bill 
upon the pretext that the usurpation of the rebels for 
the hour has destroyed the States, or that the forces 
of the United States sent to drive out and overthrow 
the rebel power which held the State and national 
Governments in the South alike in abeyance, are to be 
considered conquering forces, extinguishing the local 



410 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

constitutions the nation is bound to guaranty. Look- 
ing to the root of the matter, the cause of all our dis- 
asters, proves that instead of considering the State 
Governments abolished, Congress would best perform 
its functions by amending the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States itself, so as to eradicate slavery from our 
whole system. This simple remedy, which can be at- 
tained by adhering to the forms of the Constitution 
itself, supersedes the revolutionary schemes of those 
who would convert the States into Territories and 
assert absolutism over them in reo:ard to their future 
admission into the Union. The founders of the Gov- 
ernment saw the lurkino; evil in admittino- the slave- 
tolerating clause in the Constitution ; they foretold its 
fatal tendency. Our present Chief Magistrate, before 
he was thought of for the place he held, predicted that 
this Government ' could not endure permanently half 
free and lialf slave.' And can there be a better solu- 
tion of the danger than that furnished by the Senate's 
bill incorporating Jefferson's ordinance of freedom with 
the fundamental law of the nation ? Is it not better 
than disfranchising States and robbing loyal men of 
their rights, putting them on a footing with rebels 
already disfranchised by their bloody treason? Our 
soldiers invoke the loyal citizens of the South to join 
their ranks, and patriots everywhere would call on the 
loyalists of the South to renew the glorious association 
o^' free States of the North and South by joining with 
its armed deliverers in the reelection of the man who 
first organized free government over our whole coun- 
try, and has thus earned the high privilege of inaugu- 



MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. 411 

rating the renewed and most auspicious career of the 
Union." 

Having thus vindicated himself from the asper- 
sions of his enemies, Gen. Blair resigned his seat in 
the House, and sousrht a command in the field. His 
enemies having been foiled in their efforts to injure 
him in the House, now tried to destroy his influence 
in the army. On the 25th of April, Mr. Dawes, of 
Massachusetts, offered the followmo; resolution in the 
House : 

'''■Resolved.! That the President be requested to 
communicate to this House whether the flon. Francis 
P. Blair, Jr., representing the first congressional dis- 
trict of Missouri in the present House, now holds any 
appointment or commission in the military service of 
the United States ; and if so, what that appointment 
or commission is, and when the said Blair accepted the 
same, and whether he is now acting under the authority 
of any such appointment or commission.*' 

In response to this resolution, Mr. Lincoln, on the 
28th, sent to the House the following; messao-e statino- 
General Blairs action in the case : 
" To the House of Representatives : 

" In obedience to a resolution of your honorable 
body, a copy of which is liereby returned, I have tlie 
honor to make the following brief statement, which is 
believed to contain the information souo-ht : 

o 

" Prior to, and at the meeting of the present Con- 
gress, Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio, and Frank P. 
Blair, Jr., of Missouri, members elect thereto, by and 
with the consent of the Senate held commissions from 



412 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

the Executive as major generals in the volunteer army. 
General Schenck tendered the resignation of his said 
commission and took his seat in the House of Repre- 
sentatives at the assembling thereof, upon the distinct 
verloal understanding with the Secretary of War and 
the Executive that he might, at any time during the 
session, at his own pleasure, withdraw said resignation 
and return to the field. General Blair was, by tem- 
porary agreement with General Sherman, in command 
of a corps through the battles in front of Chattanooga, 
and in the march to the relief of Knoxville, which oc- 
curred in the latter days of December last, and of 
course was not present at the assembling of Congress. 
When he subsequently arrived here, he sought and 
was allowed by the Secretary of War and the Execu- 
tive the same conditions and promise as allowed and 
made to General Schenck. General Schenck has not 
applied to withdraw his resignation, but when General 
Grant w^as made lieutenant-general, producing some 
change of commanders. General Blair sought to be as- 
signed to command of a corps. This was made known 
to Generals Grant and Sherman, and assented to by 
them, and the particular corps for him designated. This 
was all arranged and understood, as now remembered, 
as much as a month ago ; but the withdrawal of Gen- 
eral Blair s resignation, and making the order assign- 
ing him to the command of a corps, were not consum- 
mated at the War Department until last week, perhaps 
on the 23d of April, instant. As a summary of the 
whole, it may be stated that General Blair holds no 
military commission or appointment other than licrein 



A NEW COMMISSION. 413 

stated, and that it is believed lie is now acting as major 
general upon the assumed validity of the commission 
herein stated, and not otherwise. There are some let- 
ters, notes, telegrams, orders, entries, and perhaps 
other documents, in connection with this subject, which 
it is believed would throw no additional light upon it, 
but which will be cheerfully furnished if desired. 
" Aiyril 28, 1864. Abraham Llncoln." 

This plain statement of the President showed that 
Gen. Blair's course had been both straightforv/ard and 
patriotic, and the malice of his enemies resolved itself 
to a resolution that Gen. Blair, by reason of holding 
a militar}^ commission was not legally qualified to serve 
as a member of the House. Gen. Blair, however, 
having several montlis before the passage of this reso- 
lution, voluntarily returned to the field, had practically 
resigned his seat in the House. The intrigues and plots 
of Congress had no charms for him, and he preferred 
an open conflict with a manly foe to the pitiful encoun- 
ters of the House. The malice of his enemies gave 
him no concern, and their shafts fell harmless from the 
triple armor of his own rectitude. 

President Lincoln, however, seeing tliat General 
Blair's enemies were willing that the country should 
lose his services in order that their o-wn malice mi"-ht 

o 

be gratified, resolved to place the General's military 
position upon a more assured footing, and accordingly 
renominated him to be Major-General of Volunteers, 
which nomination was confirmed by the Senate by a 
bare majority of two or three, so strongly was that 
body biassed by partisanship. 



CHAPTER V. 

General Blair returns to the Field — Is given Command of tlie Seventeenth 
Corps in Sherman's Army — The Advance to Dalton — Alatoona Pass 
— Kenesaw Mountain — The Capture of Atlanta — A Hard Campaign 
— The Pursuit of Hood — "The March to the Sea" — Army Sketch 
of General Blair — Details of the March — Tiie Occupation of Savan- 
nah — The Seventeenth Corps transferred to Hilton Head — Blair's 
Midwinter March — The Occupation of Columbia — The March through 
the Carolinas — Occupation of Fayetteville — Battle of BeutonviUe — 
Surrender of General Johnston — The March to Washington — The 
Great Eeview — General Blair resigns his Commission. 

General Blaie returned to the field in March, 18G4, 
and was assig-ned the command of the Seventeenth 
Army Corps, in Sherman's Army. By this time Gen- 
eral Grant had been made lieutenant-general, and 
had been assigned the chief command of the armies 
of the Union, and had taken immediate charge of the 
operations in Virginia, and Sherman had been placed 
in command of the Military Division of the Missis- 
sippi. Sherman's force in the field consisted of three 
combined armies, namely, the Army of the Ohio, under 
Major-Gencral John M. Schofield, the Army of the 
Cumberland, under Major-General George H. Thomas, 
and the Armj^ of the Tennessee, under Major-General 
McPherson. The Seventeenth Corps formed a part 
of the Army of the Tennessee, and during the early 
winter and spring was quartered in and around Hunts- 
ville, Alabama. The entire army under General Sher- 



THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. 415 

man's command numbered ninety eight thousand eight 
hundred men, toi^ether with two hundred and fiftv-four 
pieces of artillery. 

The task assigned to General Sherman was of the 
highest importance. The war had been reduced to a 
struggle at two promhient jDoints — Virginia and 
Georgia — and while Grant had reserved to himself the 
management of affairs in the East, he gave to Sherman 
the largest discretion in the direction of the campaign 
in the Southwest. Sherman's part in the great pro- 
gramme for closing the war, was to defeat Johnston's 
army, capture Atlanta, and drive the Confederates 
away from their rich granaries in northern Georgia. 
If successful in this, he expected to be able to render 
valuable service in compelling the South to submit to 
the authority of the Union. The results of the cam- 
paign show that his convictions were founded upon 
sound reasonino". The movements in Georgia were to 
be simultaneous with those in Virginia, and on the 27th 
of April, 1864, orders were issued for the concentra- 
tion before Chattanooga of all the troops which were 
to take part in the campaign, and by the 6th of May, 
Sherman's whole army was disposed along the border 
of Georgia, directly in front of Dalton. 

The Confederate army, forty thousand nine hundred 
strong, under the command of General Joseph E. 
Johnston, was posted around Dalton, along the line 
of the Chattanooga and Atlanta Railway. It was 
Johnston's plan to reenforce his army from other points 
farther South, and take the initiative, but his Govern- 
ment hampered him by its folly and weakness until 



41G LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Sherman's action compelled him to assume the de- 
fensive. 

Between the Confederate joositiou and that held by 
General Sherman there lay an impracticable range of 
mountains, called Rocky Face Ridge, which was pass- 
able only at Buzzard's Roost Gap, a narrow mountain 
pnss, through which ran the railroad to Atlanta and a 
stream called Mill Creek. The enemy had fortified 
this pass so strongly that there was no hope of Sher- 
man being able to carry it by assault ; and that com- 
mander determined to turn the enemy's position on 
the' left. This movement was intrusted to the army 
of the Tennessee. General Blair commanded his corps 
in this famous flank march, which resulted in the 
abandonment of the position before Dalton by John- 
ston, and his retreat to Resaca. From Resaca John- 
ston was forced back to Alatoona Pass, and from that 
point to Kenesaw Mountain, and in all the movements 
which led to these results the Seventeenth Corps bore 
an honorable part. General Blair participated in the 
gallant but fruitless assaults of the 2'7th of June, on the 
Confederate position at Kenesaw Mountain, and led 
his corj)s across the Chattahoochee on the 9th of July. 

On the morning of the 2 2d of July, General Sher- 
mar| discovered that the enemy had abandoned the 
strong line of Peach Tree Creek and had retired within 
the defences of Atlanta, and he at once gave the order 
for his forces to close in around that city, which A\-as 
done during the day, McPherson's army moving upon 
the left of Sherman's line. 

General McPherson marched practically along the 



THE BATTLE OF JULY 22, 1864. 417 

line of the Atlanta and Augusta Railway, witli tlie 
Fifteenth Corps, General Logan, in tlie centre of his 
line, the Sixteenth, General Dodge, on his right, and 
the Seventeenth, General Blair, on his left. On the 
night of the 21st, General Blair had made a gallant 
attack on a force of the enemy strongly intrenched on 
a commanding hill to the south and east of the rail- 
road, had driven it away and secured the position 
which was of sjreat value to McPherson in his move- 
ment of the 2 2d. In order to make sure of this posi- 
tion, McPherson commenced to fortify it on the morn- 
ing of the 22d, and moved forward his whole force to 
the support of the Seventeenth Corps which was 
already at work on the intrenchments. 

While this movement was going on, General Hood, 
who had succeeded General Johnston in the command 
of the Confederate army, sallied forth from Atlanta 
with a strong column consisting of Hardee's and 
Stewart's Corps of his army, and fell upon the Seven- 
teenth with that fire and vigor for which the onsets of 
the Southern troops are famous. The attack was 
entirely unexpected, and it came before all of McPher- 
son's troops were in position. It fell first upon the 
left di\"ision of the Seventeenth Corps, which was forced 
back for some distance. General Blair was equal to 
the emergency, however. Bringing his corps rapidly 
into line on the crest of the hill, he received the enemy 
with a terrible fire, which drove them back for a mo- 
ment. They pressed on again, and for four hours 
the battle went on hotly. The Seventeenth Corps 
held its ground, until recnforced, against one of 
27 



418 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

the most brilliant and gallant efforts ever made by the 
Confederates. The battle became general along the 
whole line of the army of the Tennessee, but its chief 
weight fell nj^on the Seventeenth Corj^s, which was 
highly complimented by General Sherman for its gal- 
lant conduct. Every attack of the Confederates was 
repulsed, and about five o'clock, the enemy withdrew 
towards Atlanta. 

In this battle General McPherson, commanding 
the Army of the Tennessee, was killed. He had rid- 
den towards his left alone, for the purpose of directing 
the movements of his troops, and strayed into the 
enemy's lines, and was shot.''' 

General Blair continued to direct the movements 



* After tbe close of tlie war some evil-minded persons, wishing to 
injure General Blair, who had given great oifence to the Radicals by his 
Conservative course, put in circulation a report that General McPher- 
•son's death had been caused by General Blair's incompetency to com- 
mand his corps in the battle of July 22d. As the surest way of refuting 
this slander, General Blair wrote to General Sherman, asking his opinion 
respecting it. The following is his letter : 

" St. Louis, June 22, 1866. 
" Majoe-Gexeral SnEEMAX : 

'■'■Bear General — A report was put in circulation soon after the bat- 
tle before Atlanta, on the 22d of July, 1864, by some irresponsible letter 
writer, to the effect that the death of Major-General McPherson was the 
direct result of my mismanagement and improper disposition of the troops 
under my command. This report is received and reiterated by persons 
who are displeased with my political sentiments, wherever it promises to 
give them any advantage. 

"Every soldier and officer who served under your ordeis has a right 
to appeal to you against any injustice souglit to bo inflicted on liim while 
under your command; and as I know that nothing will bo more unjust 
and more injurious than this accusation, I ask you to say whether there 
is any foundation, or even color of truth, in the statement to which I 



LETTER FROM GEN. SHERMAN. 419 

of his corps in the operations which led to the capture 
of Atlanta, and after the fall of that city, obtained a 
temporary leave of aljsence, and returned to the West- 
have referred. I have only to add that it is my intention to publisli your 
reply to this note. 

" Kespectfully, your friend and obedient servant, 

" Frank P. Blair, Jr." 

To this note General Sherman replied as follows : 

" Headquarters, Mil. Div. of the Mississippi, ) 
" St. Louis, Mo., June 23, 18G6. ) 
"General F. P. Blair, St. Louis, present: 

'■'• Dear General — I am this moment in receipt of your note of yester- 
day, in which you state that certain parties differing from you in political 
sentiments, have raised the story that the death of our mutual friend, 
General McPherson, July 22, 1864, resulted from your mismanagement 
and faulty disposition of troops. 

" It seems impossible to fix a limit to the falsehoods that politicians 
will resort to, to accomplish their ends ; but tliis goes beyond all de- 
cency. The truth was, and is, that General McPherson in person, placed 
in their position the two divisions which composed your corps, the 
Seventeenth, and instead of refusing the extreme left, he had in person 
extended it forward, and detached a party still more to the lefc and front 
to secure a position from which he proposed to batter the large rolling- 
mill in Atlanta. Having about that time of the day, say 10 a.m., re- 
ceived from me a note telling him not to extend too far to his left, he 
left you and came to me, then near the centre of tlie general line, and 
urged on me the importance of using Dodge's two divisions, theji moving 
towards that tlank, to extend still more your line. I had consented to 
modify my former orders in part, and he was returning to that flank 
when he was killed. 

" You were in no manner the cause ; nor was it yonr business to 
alter th.e disposition of tlie troops, just as General McPherson had made 
them himself. You had no reason to apprehend danger to your left or 
rear ; nor from the nature of the ground could you have seen the move- 
ment by which the enemy's skirmishers reached the wooded space, in 
passing which General McPherson was shot. 

"Our military maps are now so perfect and public, and the official 
reports of the facts so full and clear, that I must say it augurs a very bad 



420 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

em States, where he advocated the reelection of Mr. 
Lincoln to the Presidency. He returned to the army 
late in October, and resumed the command of his corps, 
which was then resting at Smyrna camp ground, after 
the pursuit of Hood''s army into Alabama. 

When General Blair returned to the army, Sher- 
man had completed his arrangements for the famous 
" march to the sea," and had divided his army into 
two wings. The right, to which General Blair was 
attached, consisted of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth 
Corps, and was commanded by General Howard ; and 
the left, comprised of the Fourteenth and Twentieth 
Corps, was given to General Slocum. The Seven- 
teenth Corps consisted of three divisions, commanded 
by Generals Mower, Leggett, and Giles A. Smith, and 
was in • the best possible condition for the campaign, 
and devotedly attached to its gallant leader. 

Major Nichols, of Gen. Sherman's staff, gives the 
following description of Gen. Blair, as he appeared at 
this period : 

" One who had never seen General Blair except in 
the field as a corps commander, would find it difficult 
to realize that he has occupied so prominent a position 
in the political arena ; for, while it may not be said 
that he is a born soldier, yet he possesses in a marked 
degree many of the qualities which constitute a good 
commander. Under all circumstances he never loses 

heart to lay tliis charge to you, from which, as your common commander, 
I exonerate you absolutely. 

" With great respect, 
(Signed) "W. T. Shebman, Maj.-Gen:' 



SKETCH OF GEN. BLAIR. 421 

that perfect coolness and self-command which render 
him master of the situation, and inspire the confidence 
of the soldiers. This imperturbability never deserts 
him. One day, when the rebels renewed an attack 
upon his lines with furious vigor, although they had 
already been repulsed several times, sustaining terrible 
losses, Blair removed his cigar from his mouth, as he 
watched their onset, and quietly observed, 

" ' See the fellows ! There they come again, right 
through the woods. What in thunder do they want?' 

" They wanted to carry his line, but they failed ; and 
Blair continued smoking, as if nothing had happened. 

'* General Blair is one of the most hospitable and 
popular men of the army. As commander of the 
Seventeenth Corps, he is identified with the history of 
the Army of the Tennessee — a gallant, heroic band of 
men, it may be added, the record of whose deeds yet 
remains to be written. The General wears a fall 
sandy beard and moustache, which conceal the lower 
part of his face. His eyes are of a light hazel color, 
full of humor and good nature — an expression, how- 
ever, that is somewhat qualified b}' the overhanging 
brow, which has a noli me tangere air, as much as to 
say, 'If I must fight, it shall be war to the hilt.' In 
height, the General is about five feet eleven inches. 
His frame is finely proportioned ; and he makes a 
good appearance On horseback. He selects excellent 
horses, and knows how to ride them. In the army he 
has the reputation of a kind, generous, discreet man, 
and a brave soldier." * 

* The Story of the Great March, pp. 97, 98. 



422 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Atlanta and Rome having been destroyed, the 
rmht Avino-, under General Howard, be<2;an its march 
from Whitehall on the 15th of November. General 
Blair's corps formed the left of Howard's column, and 
led the advance, moving upon McDonough by the 
direct road from Atlanta, and occupied that place on 
the 16th. On the 17th, he encamped at Hendrick's 
Mill, and on the 18th crossed the Ocmulgee and moved 
towards Hillsborough. Marching rapidly through 
Gordon, which he occupied on the 21st, he forced the 
passage of the Oconee at Ball's Ferry, compelling the 
Confederates to abandon their fortified position at this 
point, and after securing the crossing, destroyed a con- 
siderable portion of the Georgia Central Railwaj'. On 
the morning of the 26th of November, General Sher- 
man shifted his headquarters from the left wing, and 
accompanied Blair's corps in person. On the 28th, 
Blair encamped before Biddleville, and on the 29th, 
at Station No. 10, on the Central Hallway. On the 
30th, he m.oved to Barton, or Station 9|, rebuilt a 
partially destroyed wagon bridge, laid a pontoon bridge 
over the Ogeechee, and crossed that river at that point. 
Pushing on the next day, along the line of the railway, 
which he destrojed as he went, he reached Milieu on 
the 2d of December, and burnt the depot and a quan- 
tity of railroad supplies. Continuing to move along 
the line of the Central Railway, which he effectually 
demolished. Gen. Blair, on the 9th of December, still 
leading the advance of the army, came upon the enemy 
in rifle-pits, about three and a half miles from Station 
No. 2. Rapidly throwing his troops into line, he" 



"the march to the sea." 423 

made a vigorous and successful charge upon the pits, 
carrying them with a rush, and then pressed on in the 
direction taken by the retreating Confederates. In a 
short time he came upon a much stronger force of the 
enemy posted, in an intrenched line, with artillery in 
position. The Southern line was very strong, and. the 
only approach to it "was by a narrow road through a 
thickly- wooded swamp, which seemed at the first glance 
impassable. Not daunted by this, Blair moved three 
lines of battle, with a skirmish line in advance, along 
and on the right and left of the road ; the troops 
wading through the mud, and often through water up 
to their knees. They made a vigorous attack upon 
the Confederates, drove them from their original posi- 
tion, and pressed them back steadily during the day 
from every point at which they attempted to make a 
stand, until nightfall, when the corps bivouacked at 
Pooler, or Station No. 1. On the next day, the rest 
of the army came up, and Sherman's entire force was 
united before the defences of Savannah, which city fell 
into his possession on the 21st of December. 

After a month's rest at Savannah, Sherman pre- 
pared to execute the remainder of his plan for finish- 
ing; the war, which Avas to march throufrh the Caroli- 
nas and place his army within supporting distance of 
the Army of the Potomac, in Virginia. 

On the 15th of Januar}^, General Howard em- 
barked Blair's corps on transports at Thunderbolt, near 
the mouth of the Savannah River, and proceeded to 
Beaufort, South Carolina, where he disembarked the 
troops. Marching rapidly towards the Charleston and 



424 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Savannah Railway, General Blair seized it at Pocota- 
ligo Station, driving off the enemy, and establishing 
himself firmly on the road, drawing his supplies from 
Hilton Head by way of Pocotaligo Creek. Two divi- 
sions of the Fifteenth Corps arrived soon after, and on 
the 24th of January, every thing being in readiness. 
General Sherman reached General Blair's headquarters. 
On the 31st of January, the advance of the array w^as 
begun. 

General Blair was ordered to force the line of the 
Salkehatchie, which was held by the enemy in force, 
at Elver's Bridge. He executed this task with great 
promptness and skill, " with Mower's and Corse's divi- 
sions of the Seventeenth Corps, the latter under Giles 
A. Smith, on the 3d of February, by crossing the 
swamp, nearly three miles wide, with water varying 
from knee to shoulder deep. The weather was bitter 
(old. Generals Mower and Smith led their divisions 
in jierson, on foot, waded the swamp, made a lodge- 
ment below the bridge, and turned the Rebel brigade 
which guarded it, driving it in confusion and disorder 
towards Branch ville." * On the next day the Seven- 
teenth Corps occupied Midway, on the South Carolina 
Railway, and at once commenced the destruction of 
that road, which was continued until the 10th. Then 
crossino^ the South Fork of the Edisto at Binnaker's 
Bridge, Blair moved towards Orangeburg. On the 
12th of February, he reached Orangeburg bridge, 
where he found the enemy posted in intrenchments. 
H-e at once drove off this force, and pressed it across 

* Sherman and Ms Cam2yaigns. p. 337. 



PASSAGE OF THE EDISTO. 425 

the bridge. The Confederates held the opposite shore 
with a strong line, with a battery in the centre, their 
whole line being covered by works of earth and cotton, 
and under the cover of their fire they succeeded in 
partially burning the bridge. Determining to force 
the Edisto here. General Blair moved Giles A. Smith's 
division close up to the river in front of the bridge, 
and moved his other two divisions to a point two miles 
below. Then throwing a pontoon bridge over the 
river, he crossed Force's division and held Mower's in 
support. Force at once moved upon the Confederate 
works, and the enemy abandoned them. General 
Smith then secured the bridge, crossed the river, and 
occupied the abandoned works. The whole corps was 
then united and Orangeburg was occupied by four 
o'clock in the afternoon. General Blair was ordered 
by General Sherman to destroy the railroad as far as 
Lewisville, and to compel the enemy to withdraw 
across the Congaree and burn the bridges over that 
stream, which he did on the 14th. On the 17th he 
arrived before Columbia. A party of his men crossed 
the Congaree in a skiff, and were the first to enter the 
City, which was formally surrendered to General Sher- 
man about the same time. The Seventeenth Corps, 
however, did not enter the town at all, but encamped 
across the river from it. On the 20th, after Sherman 
had finished his work of destruction in Columbia, the 
march was resumed, and on the 21st of February, 
Winnsboro was reached. From this point, while 
Slocum, by a feint towards Charlotte, N. C, deceived 
the Confederates as to Sherman's intentions, Blair, 



426 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JE. 

leading the advance of the right wing, crossed the 
Catawba on the 22d of February, and marched upon 
Cheraw, which he occupied on the 3d of March^ cap- 
turing twenty-five pieces of artillery and a large quan- 
tity of military stores, which had been sent there from 
Charleston when that city was evacuated. These he 
destroyed, together with the railroad and all the 
bridges within reach. On. the 5th of March, having 
forced the enemy over the Great Pedee, he crossed 
that river at Cheraw, and led the advance upon Fay- 
etteville, which he reached on the 12th of March, the 
town having been occupied by the left wing on the 
previous day. This portion of the march was very 
trying upon the men, and some idea of its difficulties 
may be gained from the following extract from the 
diary of Major Nichols : 

" AVhat a noble army we have here ! Every day 
produces fresh and striking illustrations of the men's 
cheerful acceptance of all the discouraging circum- 
stances of the situation. For instance ; a wagOn, i^ain- 
fully toiling along the road, suddenly careens; the 
w*heels are submerged in a quicksand ; every effort of 
the mules or horses to ' pull out ' only buries the un- 
fortunate vehicle deeper in the mire, and very soon 
the animals have dug for themselves a pit, out of 
which many are never extricated alive. The driver 
sees at once that it is useless to whij) and swear, so he 
dismounts. Then the train guard, who have been 
resting upon their muskets, watching the proceedings, 
(.piietly stack their weapons, and at once plunge into 
the mud. ' A dozen of them are at work with shoulders 



BATTLE OF BENTON VILLE. 427 

at the wheels and body of the wagou, and finally they 
lift it out of the hole upon firmer ground. One or 
two wagons stuck in this way show at once that the 
road must be corduroyed. Then, with many a jest 
and an untiring flow of good humor, the men wade 
into the neighboring swamp, cut down and split the 
trees, and soon bridge over these impassable places. 
A few rods further on the head of column arrives at a 
creek, w^hich in ordinary seasons is ten feet wide, and 
has a few inches of water running over a hard sandy 
bottom. Now the water is four or six feet in depth, 
and sj^reads out to a width of sixty feet, encroaching 
upon the softer earth. A bridge must be built. Into 
the water dash our men without hesitation, for they 
know the work must be done at once. Waist deep, 
throat deep, not a dry spot about them. 'No matter 
for that,' they say ; ' we shall be in camp by and by, 
and then, before our roaring fires, we "will rehearse the 
incidents of the day.' " * 

AVilmington having fallen into Schofield's posses- 
sion, Sherman remained at Fayetteville on the 12th, 
13th, and 14th of March, engaged in destroying the 
public property at that place, and on the 15th the 
march was resumed towards Goldsboro. On the 19th 
General Slocum, with the left wing, encountered the 
whole Confederate army at Bentonville. Sherman at 
once sent Howard to his assistance with the Fifteenth 
and Seventeenth Corps. This column reached Ben- 
tonville by a forced night march, arriving there in 
time to take part in the final repulse of the enemy, 

* The Stoi-y of the Great March. P. 233. 



428 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

wlio were defeated after a most gdlant and determined 
effort on their part. 

Gen. Blair participated in the closing scenes of the 
war in North Carolina, and when Sherman's army- 
was transferred to Washington City, led his Corps in 
the march to that city, where he took part in the 
great review in May, 1865. 

While the Army was in Petersburg, General How- 
ard, his immediate commander, sent Gen. Blair, of 
his own accord, the following letter, which shows the 
high opinion he entertained of his gallant subor- 
dinate : 

" Headquarters Army of the Tennessee, 
Petersburg, Va., May 7, 1865. 
" Major General F. P. Blair, 

Commanding Seventeenth Corps : 
" My dear Sir. — Hearing that you intend soon to 
leave the service, I wish to thank you for the genuine 
kindness and uniform hearty support you have ever 
extended towards me, from the time I took command, 
through all the varied and trying circumstances of 
hard campaigning up to the present time. I take great 
pleasure and pride in acknowledging your ability and 
success as a commanding officer, and if I can at any 
time be of service to yourself I trust you will not fail 
to call upon me as a friend. With high esteem, I sub- 
scribe myself, 

" Yours sincerely, 
(Signed) " O. O. Howard, Maj. Gen.'' 

From Washington, General Blair conducted the 



GEN. BLAIR RESIGNS HIS COMMISSION. 429 

Seventeenth Corps to Louisville, Ky., Avhere it was 
formally disbanded on the 11th of July, 1865. On 
that day lie took a formal leave of his command. In 
his parting address, he recounted their triumphs, 
thanked them for their heroism and devotion under 
all circumstances, and for " the reputation which their 
gallantry had conferred upon him," and declared his 
readiness to lead his old comrades, if the necessity for 
so doins; should arise, to the relief of the strufz-glinn: 
Republic of Mexico. Having discharged this last duty, 
General Blair resigned his commission as Major-Gen- 
eral of Volunteers, and retired to civil life. 



CHAPTER VI. 

General Blair Favors a Liberal and Generous Policy towards the South — 
Opposes the Ultra Measures of the Radicals — Denounces the Dis- 
franchisement Law of the Missouri Legislature — Refuses to Subscribe 
to the Test Oath — Is Refused his Right to Vote — Separates himself 
from tlie Republican Party, and Unites with the Democracy — His 
Nomination as Collector of Revenue Rejected by the Senate — Is 
Mentioned as a Candidate for the Presidency — Letter to Colonel 
Broadhead — Comments of the Radicals — Statement by the Herald — 
Speech of Hon. Montgomery Blair — The Convention — General Blair 
a Candidate — Nominated for the Vice-Presidency — Scene in the 
Convention — Formal Tender of the Nomination — Speech of General 
Morgan^Reply of General Blair — Meeting in 14th Street — Speech 
of General Blair — His Letter of Acceptance — His Visit to the West 
— His Speech at Omaha — Tribute from the Buffalo Courier. 

Gen. Blair had given his best efforts in behalf of 
the Union during the four years of the great Civil War, 
and, as we have seen, his services were both brilliant 
and important. While the resistance of the people 
of the South continued, he was in favor of prosecu- 
ting the Avar with the utmost vigor, but when the 
war was closed by the submission of the Soutli, his 
plan of operations was changed. He had the sagacity 
to see that the submission of the Southern people was 
genuine and honest, and he at once began to urge the 
adoption of a liberal and generous policy towards 
them. He had foudit for the restoration of the Union 
and for the supremacy of the laws, and not for the 
subjugation or destruction of the South, and he v/as 



CONSERVATIVE COURSE OF GEN. BLAIR. 431 

by no means -willing to allow the fair promise whicli 
peace brought with it to be blasted by the fanatical 
fury of the extreme men in control of affairs. He 
returned to Missouri, and endeavored to promote a 
wise and liberal course on the part of the State Gov- 
ernment towards the people of that State who had 
been aiders of or sympathizers with the Confede- 
rates, Fanaticism ruled the hour, however, and he 
was powerless to do more than protest against what 
he saw was both unwise and unconstitutional. 

The Legislature of Missouri enacted a law dis- 
franchising all who participated in or gave aid and 
comfort to the Rebellion, and another law forcing a 
test oath upon all the citizens of the State. These 
measures received the unqualified condemnation of 
General Blair as proscriptive and unconstitutional. 
He declared that since all those who had aided or 
sympathized with the Rebellion had submitted peace- 
fully to the authority of the General Government, 
there was no further necessity of harshness towards 
them, and that it was dangerous to the peace and 
prosperity of the State to deprive them of the right 
of suffrage. He refused to subscribe to the test oath, 
and having presented himself at the polls in St. Louis 
for the purpose of casting his ballot at one of the 
elections, was refused the privilege of voting until he 
should take the oath. Determined to bring the matter to 
a prompt issue, he brought a suit before the Court for 
the purpose of testing the Constitutionality of the laws. 
The case is still before the Supreme Court of the United 
States, awaiting a decision. ^Yhen the Reconstruc- 



432 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

tion laws of Congress were passed, he denounced them 
as despotic, revolutionary, and unconstitutional, and 
declared that the people of the South would be justi- 
fied in resisting their execution. He opposed with 
great earnestness the policy of universal negro suffrage, 
branding it as an outrage upon the people and a dis- 
grace to the country. 

Up to the close of the war he had acted with the 
Republican party, but when that organization began the 
excesses which have made its career infamous of late 
years, he separated himself from it. He had contribu- 
ted in a marked degree to the organization, growth, and 
success of that party, because he could not conscien- 
tiously unite with the Democracy on the slavery ques- 
tion. " On all points except slavery," says the N'ew- 
huryport (Mass.) Herald^ a high-toned conservative 
Republican journal, " he was Democratic, as were his 
father and brother ; and when slavery was abolished, 
he naturally swung back to his old position. He saw 
no reason, as thousands of others cannot, for keeping 
slavery in politics when slavery had long been dead and 
in its grave. He won a good name in Congress, and 
showed spirit, patriotism and capacity during the rebel- 
lion. Missouri was saved to the Union by Frank 
Blair ; and afterwards in the Southern campaign he 
was one of the best and most efficient commanders." 

He could not now follow the Republican party into 
the excesses against which both his heart and judg- 
ement revolted, and he at once, with characteristic bold- 
ness and wisdom, united himself with the Democratic 
party. 



NOMINATION llEJECTED, 433 

President Johnson, appreciating the services he had 
rendered the Union, nominated him in March, 1866, 
to be Collector of the Internal Revenue for the State 
of Missouri, but he was rejected by a party vote in 
the Senate. 

In the Spring of 1868, General Blair visited the 
Eastern States, and durino; this visit delivered the fol- 
lowing address in the town of Seymour, Connecticut, 
on the 3d of April 1868, showing how the Radical 
Congress has usurped arbitrary powers in the work of 
reconstructing the Southern States. The speech pre- 
sents such a fair expose of the Congressional outrages 
that we give it entire. He said : 

" Discontent was never so universal in our country 
as at this moment. Even when the civil war excited 
the nation, there was an enthusiasm on both sides in- 
spiring heroism. The antagonists, who were honest in 
their convictions, felt a patiiotism that lifted every 
man above complaint or despondency. When the war 
closed, the great mass of the people of the North v»'ere 
exultant, and even its soldiers in the field of battle 
where their foes surrendered, yet smoking with blood 
spilled from kindred veins, proved, nevertheless, that 
they cherished a generous sympathy for the fallen. 
They gave even their stores of provisions to the van- 
quished as the greater sufferers from longer depriva- 
tion, and utterly stript of the means of supply. The 
hearts of the overthrown South were touched by this 
mao-nanimitv. Grant, with the sanction of Lincoln, 
v/ho was in the camp when the first battle commenced, 
gave peace upon the terms of the act passed by the al- 
28 



434 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

most unanimous vote of Congress immediately after 
the war opened : ' Your arms surrendered, your 
parole given, go home, obey tlie laws wher^ you reside, 
and you shall not be disturbed.' Thus was the great 
rebellion extinguished. Lincoln had previously de- 
clared, during its continuance, the purpose for which 
it was waged and the conditions on which it would be 
closed. The Provisional Governors, who, as the dep- 
uties of the President, are appointed to see the prelim- 
inaries, on which the capitulation is thus made on the 
fields of battle, strictly observed, in this capacity be- 
came quasi military and civil instruments to conduct 
peaceably the people of the South into their old rela- 
tions in the Union, taking order that they should not 
be obstructed in restorin<2: their Constitutions and laws 
to the state before the war, accommodating them to 
the new conditions imposed by its results. Theu' 
function was to let them know that the way was 
opened to them for this good work, and give them the 
aid of the General Government. The people of every 
Southern State instantly addressed themselves to it. 
They restored their old constitutions in exact accord- 
ance with their original principles, and those of the 
Constitution of the United States. They abolished 
slavery to fulfil the demands made pending the rebel- 
lion in President Lincoln's proclamation as to the 
terms of surrender, and making this a condition of 
their restoration to all their rights by amnesty under 
their renovated Union Constitutions. Mr. Lincoln's 
pardon of December 8, 18G3, excejited from it all 
above the grade of Colonel, certain civil diplomatic 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 435 

officers in tlie Confederate service, and those ' wlio 
had left their seat in Congress and judicial stations,' 
and ' all who had resigned commissions in the army 
and navy of the United States to aid the rebellion ; ' 
with these exceptions every man was pardoned who 
made oath in these words : 

" ' I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and 
defend the Constitution of the United States and the 
union of the States thereunder ; and that I will in like 
manner abide by and faithfully support all acts of 
Congress passed during the rebellion with reference to 
slavery — and so long and so far as not repealed, mod- 
ified, or held void by Congress, or by decision of the 
Supreme Court ; and that I will in like manner abide 
by and faithfully support all proclamations of the 
President made durins; the existino; rebellion havin«: 
reference to slavery, so long and so far as not modified 
or declared void by decision. of the Supreme Court, so 
help me God.' 

"This was the oath prescribing the conditions of 
pardon to restore all the rights of rebels not excluded 
by its exceptions. This was followed by the capitula- 
tion given by Grant to Lee under the sanction of Lin- 
coln, who was Avith the army and in hourly communi- 
cation with Grant durins; the series of conflicts which 
ended the war. This extended the j'l^i'don to all who 
then surrendered, and afterwards to all who surren- 
dered under Johnson, and every successive surrender, 
and all who gave their parole and took the prescribed 
oath were entitled to the benefit of the amnesty. This 
was the gi'ound assumed by General Grant when Gen- 



436 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

eral Lee was indicted for high treason, and this re- 
ceived the sanction of President Johnson, and upon it 
the chief commanding the forces of the rebellion was 
discharged from indictment formed against him by the 
grand jury for treason, the capitulation and parole, 
under Lincoln's proclamation, restoring him to all his 
rights as a citizen, and stipulating that he should re- 
main undisturbed as long thereafter as he obeyed the 
lavrs, being construed as equivalent to a pardon. Jef- 
ferson Davis himself would have been exonerated, if 
he had been surrendered with his troops under this ca- 
pitulation. Not one of the soldiers or officers of the 
Confederate army can be justly subjected to punish- 
ment or any disqualification from their rights of citi- 
zenship by any ex post facto law passed by Congress or 
any of the States ; nor can any of those persons en- 
titled to avail themselves of the amnesty proclaimed 
by either President Lincoln or Johnson. The Consti- 
tution forbids it, and in e^^ery case where the judicial 
tribunals have been called on to interpose and stay 
the usurpations of the Pump Congress, and the 
military power asserting its authority, they have de- 
cided to maintain the immunities of the people under 
the Constitution, and the Executive amnesties and 
paixlons it authorizes. 

"Now, under what pretexts can the so-called Pe- 
construction acts of Congress be maintained against 
til at which the Supreme Court has in its recent decis- 
ion asserted ? The plan proi)Osed by President Lincoln 
was founded on the assumption tliat the States attempt- 
ing secession had no right to secede ; that all their 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 437 

proceedings in that direction were illegal and void, 
and that whatever shape usurpation of State powers 
miiilit take in overthrowing; the relations between the 
State and Federal authorities, they remamed unchanged 
and ready for resumption as soon as the hostile insur- 
rectionar}' force was put down. An opinion just pro- 
nounced by the Supreme Court during the present 
term, establishing his plan of operations, presents the 
constitutional principle that supports it. The Court 
says : ' We agree that all the proceedings of these 
eleven States, either severally or in conjunction, by 
means of which the existino- o;overnments were over- 
thrown and new governments erected in their stead, 
were wholly illegal and void, and that they remained 
after the attempted separation and change of govern- 
ment, in judgment of law, as completely under all 
their constitutional obligations as before. The Consti- 
tution of the United States, which is the fundamental 
law of each and all of them, not only afforded no 
countenance or authority for their proceeding, but they 
were in every part of them in express disregard and 
violation of it.' 

"Is it not clear fi'om this, that the de facto govern- 
ment having been put down by the means and in the 
mode provided for by the Constitution, the State gov- 
ernments, overthrown by the suppressed insurrection, 
must necessarily rise up and their citizens and func- 
tionaries assume their duties, and be held as 'completely 
under all their obligations as before,' and with their re- 
ciprocal rights ? And is not the Constitution of the 
United States, which is declared by the Court to be 



438 LIFE OF FEANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

'tlie fundamental law of each and all of them,' as 
absolutely applicable and as thoroughly bound to dis- 
charge its duties to both the State governments and 
their people, as if they had never been cruslied under 
an insurrection ? 

" The greatest sufferers by the rebellion are the un- 
happy i^eople who refused to countenance it by their 
votes, although constrained by secret military societies 
everywhere putting them under duress, threatening 
life, liberty and property to coerce them. Taken by 
surprise, they could neither resist themselves, nor 
would the freneral Government, althous-h bound to 
protect, interpose to save them. Yet the majority, in 
all the States but one, stood out as-ainst the secession 
ordinances ; and now almost the whole people claim 
their rights under the Constitution, in virtue of the 
amnesty proclamations, and the soldiers laid down 
their arms, and gave their parole too, under the capit- 
ulation which pledged that they should never be dis- 
turbed. This was an absolute pardon, sanctioned hy 
Lincoln, and binding the faith of the nation. What 
right has Congress to deny them their citizenship 
under the Constitution of the United States, and 
of their States, which they have been prompt to ac- 
commodate to the conditions imposed by the war, and 
which had been proclaimed to be necessary prelimina- 
ries to its conclusion — emancipation, renunciation ot 
the secession ordinances and the Confederate debt? 

"The Supreme Court has already pronounced its 
decree on the efficiency of the President's pardoning 
power and amnestv in the decision in Garland's case, 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 439 

which is farniliiir to the whole country. Has Congress 
any authority to set aside the Executive pardon, made 
absolute and indefeasible by the supreme fundamental 
law of the land "? Congress, which had the hardihood 
to grant pardons for offences imposed by its own ex 
post facto laws, offences which it had no right to create, 
has not ventured in terms to deny the President's 
power of pardon — under what pretext does it assume 
to subject to the most grievous punishment millions of 
people — multitudes of them innocent of a thought to 
harm the Union — multitudes of them its devout 
friends, but nevertheless by conscription dragged into 
the opposing ranks and their means extorted to supply 
them, betrayed and abandoned by the Government to 
its and their enemies — how can they justify the punish- 
ment of such or any others, absolved by the proclama- 
tion of amnesty and special Executive pardons ? Yet 
the whole white race of the South arc unjustly sacri- 
ficed to the neo:ro race of the ostracized States. The 
negroes are made the instruments of forcing upon 
them governments abhorrent to them, constitutions de- 
vised by caucus committees in Washington, to bind 
them forever under negro rule. Is this no punishment 
to the exalted race that fouirht the battles that made us 
a nation independent of foreign rule ? Is it no pun- 
ishment to our whole kindred of the South to have 
their ablest and best classes disabled by penal, ex post 
facto, unconstitutional statutes, passed to disfranchise 
them, to deprive them of the suffrage, which is given 
to the negroes and to disqualify them for all public 
trusts ? The people of the South who created its gov- 



440 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLA^R, JR. 

ernraents rise and say in wriUeii petitions, and in one 
vote when consulted : ' Continue the military govern- 
ment of our own race which you have put over us, 
rather than this unnatural, intolerable subjugation.' 

" Let it be remembered that negro sovereignty over 
the South, which in commanding that section has a 
control even in the North, was never submitted to the 
people of the North as a question to be decided in the 
elections. When it was sus-crested in the Democratic 
Conventions that the lurkino- desim of establishino; 
negro suffrage was entertained by the Kepublican 
party, it was universally denied by its candidates be- 
fore the people. The present Congress made their 
programme for the election rest on the amendment to 
the Constitution known as the fourteenth amendment, 
reported from Mr. Stevens's committee, recognizing the 
constitutional right of each Southern State to establish 
suffrage for itself, but providing in case the negroes 
were excluded from voting, they should not be counted 
in the ratio of representation — that is to say, that no 
State which excluded any class of people from the suf- 
frage on account ' of race, or color, or previous condi- 
tion,' should be entitled to representation in Congress 
or the Electoral College based upon the excluded per- 
sons. Upon this pronounced principle, voted by the 
entire Republican party in both branches of Congress, 
they went before the people, and by adroitly re])resent- 
ing that in case the State of Alabama, for instance, 
containing half a million of blacks, and half a mil- 
lion of whites, should exclude the blacks from suffrage, 
its voting population of one-half million of whites 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 441 

ought not to have representation m Congress based 
on the numbers of both white and black, which would 
give them equal representation witli one million of 
white men in a Northern State — making one white 
man in Alabama equal to two in any Northern State. 
It was on this principle that their existing majority in 
the present Congress was returned. But they had no 
sooner reached their seats than they violated their 
pledges and the Constitution together. They enacted 
negro suffrage universally for the whole South in their 
reconstruction acts ; they made it paramount in all the 
Conventions to establish the State Constitutions, and 
in order to give supremacy to this negro vote, they 
disabled a sufficient number of the white race to give 
the negro vote the majority. In giving the right of 
registrj^ of voters to its own agents, the present Con- 
gress holds the power, and if re-elected will retain it, 
to make the vote of the ten States dependent on its 
will. If this power now assumed by Congress over 
the suffrao;e of the States be maintained and transmit- 
ted, as it is reported by Kell}-, of" Pennsylvania, and 
Sumner, of Massachusetts, and others, it may be, the 
Government is consolidated in the hands of Congress, 
with the power of perpetuating itself 

"This was not the sort of reconstruction on which 
Mr. Lincoln was reelected, and on which he staked him- 
self in opposition to the Radicals, and went before the 
nominating Republican Convention — and atterwards 
made proclamation to the people to enable them to de- 
cide it at the polls. Let me briefly point to tlie steps 
taken by the President, and with the approval of the 



442 LIFE OF FEA^JCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

people, on this all-essential question of reconstruction ; 
then contrast it with that of Congress. The collision 
between Consfressional Radicalism and the Executive 
began under Mr. Lincoln. By resolution Congress 
invited the President to issue his proclamation of am- 
nesty, coupled with the condition of taking the oath to 
abide by his proclamation of emancipation as a war 
measure. In his subsequent message to Congress he 
explained this measure as having for its object recon- 
struction of the States, saying that he had ' proffered 
that if in any of the States named a State Govern- 
ment shall be, in the mode prescribed, set up, such 
Government shall be recognized and guarantied by the 
United States, and that under it the State shall, on 
the constitutional conditions, be protected against in- 
vasion and domestic violence,' and then, he added, in 
justification for extending the oath to support the Con- 
stitution so as to embrace the declaration * to abide by 
his ^proclamation of emancipation,' this passage in his 
message : 

" ' But if it be proper to require as a test of admis- 
sion to a political body an oath of allegiance to the 
Constitution and the Union under it, why not also 
to the laws and proclamations in regard to slavery "? 
These laws and proclamations were enacted and put 
forth for the purpose of aiding in the suj^pression of 
the rebellion. To give them their fullest effect there 
had to be a pledge for their maintenance. In my judg- 
ment they have aided and will further aid the cause 
for Avhich they were intended. To now abandon them 
would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 443 

would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of 
faith; 

" This attitude assumed by the President, and 
which ushered in the year 1864, the whole Republican 
party, in and out of Congress, heartily assumed. But 
the views of ambition in Presidential aspirants worked 
a chancre before the close of the summer session. Messrs. 
Wade and Winter Davis, chairmen of the Reconstruc- 
tion Committees of the Senate and House, worked 
throuo:h Cono-ress a bill which was. to withdraw the 
subject of restoring the relations of the States in the 
Union from the President and to take the whole matter 
into the hands of Congress ; and. moreover, to with- 
draw the subject from the people of the States them- 
selves, and dictate in Coniiress the Constitution of 
these States. They induced Congress to enact a law 
prescribing Constitutions to the States, disfranchising 
whole classes of citizens, making them ineligible for 
office and incapable of voting, declaring that every 
person Avho shall hereafter hold or exercise any office, 
civil or military, below the grade of colonel, is hereby 
declared not to he a citizen of the United States; and 
appointing a provisional Governor, who is authorized 
to call a convention to adopt the constitution thus 
prescribed to be submitted to Congress for its assent. 
The President, by proclamation, shall recognize the 
government thus formed, and none other, as the estab- 
lished government of the State. 

"This bill was thrust throu2;h the House on the 
clay it was reported. The Senate passed a substitute 
entirely changing its character ; but after attempts to 



444 LIFE OF FPvANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

modify in Committee of Conference, the measure — 
which v/as in fact the assumption of Congress to ordain 
the fundamental law for State governments — was ac- 
cepted and passed as originally reported to the House. 
The President, in his proclamation laying this bill be- 
fore the country, with his reasons for not signing it, 
states that it reached him for his approval less than an 
hour before ' the sine die adjournment of said session.' 
"But the President's objection was not to the plan 
of construction set forth in the bill. It was that Con- 
gress had no power delegated to it in the Constitution 
of the United States to make State constitutions ; that 
under the theory of our Government this power be- 
longed to the people of the States. He says in pro- 
claimins: this bill as a measure for the consideration 
of the country, ' while I am unprepared by a formal 
approval of this bill to be committed to any single plan 
of restoration ; and while I am also unprepared to de- 
clare that the free State Constitutions already adopted 
and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set 
at naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal 
citizens who have set up the same as to further effort, 
or to declare the competency in Congress to abolish 
slavery in States, but am at the same time sincerely 
hoping and expecting that a constitutional amend- 
ment abolishinn; slavery throuoliout the nation may be 
adopted ; nevertheless I am fully satisfied with the 
y}'stem for restoration contained in the bill as one 

VERY PROPER PLAN FOR THE LOYAL PEOPLE OF ANY STATE 
CHOOSING TO ADOPT IT.' 

"In the last words, marked in capitals, as they 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 445 

deserve to be, the President proclaims the principle on 
which Congress has made the war with the Executive 
Department, which threatens revolution. The bill car- 
ried through the House in a day, and -which the Senate, 
in Committee of Conference, accepted in an evil hour, 
and which it was demanded of the President he should 
sign in less than an hour, was designed to alter the 
whole frame of our Government. The people of the 
States originated their State Governments. They con- 
quered their independence of the British Government, 
and they then created the Go\-ernment of the United 
States, to combine and guarantee the republican State 
Governments. All our governments, local and na- 
tional, originate with the people. The Davis and 
Wade bill was designed to reverse the whole system, 
and enable Comrress to create State Govenments and 
make them what it chose to make them. Mr. Lincoln 
said, No : I am willing to submit your plan ' as one 
very proper plan for the loyal people of any State 
choosing to adopt it.' This did not comply with the 
Davis and Wade bill. Tliat was peremptory law — 
compulsory — was absolute subjugation of the people 
to the will of Cono-ress. Tlie stand taken for this 

o 

high-handed measure was thus asserted in the pre- 
amble of the bill as sent to the Senate. ' Whereas, 
the so-called Confederate States are a public enemy, 
waging an unjust war, whose injustice is so glaring 
that they have no right to claim the mitigation of the 
extreme rights of war, which are awarded bv modern 
usage to an enemy who has a right to consider tlie war 
a just one.' 



446 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

" The measure tLus derives its principle froia the 
assumption that tlie rights of humanity had been for- 
feited by the whole Southern people. This was the 
starting point of the Eadical party. In refusing to 
sanction it and give a new origin to the State govern- 
ments, not only unwarranted by the Constitution of 
the United States, but incompatible with our whole 
system and incompatible with the idea of free Govern- 
ment, ' founded on the consent of the o-overned/ the 
President was subject to violent abuse put forth in an 
appeal to the people by AVade and Davis, the Chair- 
men of the Committees of the two Houses, reporting 
the bill. ' The President (they said), hy preventing 
this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral vote 
of the rebel States at the dictation of his personal am- 
bition, discards the authority of the Supreme Court 
and strides headlong toward the anarchy his procla- 
mation of the 8th of December inaugurates.' 'A more 
studied outrage on the legislative authority of the peo- 
ple has never been inaugurated.' ' He has already ex- 
ercised this dictatorial usurpation in Louisiana.' 

"" They further tell the President ' that the authority 
of Congress is paramount, and must be respected ;' 
' that the whole body of the Union men of Congress 
will not submit to be impeached by him of rash and 
unconstitutional legislation,' and concludes, if they do, 
'they become responsible for the usurpations which 
they fail to rebuke, and are justly liable to the indigna- 
tion of the people whose rights and security, commit- 
ted to their keeping, they sacrifice.' 

" In defiance of this elaborate philippic, circulated 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 447 

by the Radicals all over the country to defeat the 
nomination of Mr. Lincoln, he with Mr. Johnson receiv- 
ed the nomination and were elected by the Kepublican 
party by large majorities. 

" Towards the close of the next session, Louisiana, 
under the recommendation of the President, presented 
her Constitution, and asked admission for her Sena- 
tors and Hepresentatives. There was a large majority 
for it, but it was defeated by what is called filibuster- 
ing, never before resorted to in the Senate — speaking 
against time — moving simulated amendments — calling 
the yeas and nays, and at successive intervals moving 
adjournments, with the yeas and nays, until by this 
subterfuge the time lapsed fur sending the bill to the 
House and having it passed before the constitutional 
term of Congress expired. In this dilatory process to 
defeat the admission cf Louisiana, which was contin- 
ued through the night until the morning hours of the 
next day, Messrs. Sumner, Wade, Chandler, Howard, 
and Brown, were the corj)orars guard of Radicals who 
fought the bill to the death ; all the rest of the Radi- 
cals giving in their adhesion to this opening measure 
to restore the Union with the advent of JMr. Lincoln's 
second inauguration, which followed eight da}-s after- 
wards. These five votes prevented it; the [)revious 
question to bring a bill on its passage being denied by 
the rules of the Senate. These five votes were sufli- 
cient, by the abuse of the rules of legislation in one 
branch of Congress, to defeat representation of the 
South ; to defeat the public opinion of the great body 
of the people on the question of restoration ; to defeat 



448 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

the ^vill of the Republican party expressed in the Con- 
vention which nominated Mr. Lincoln in defiance of 
this precise issue made with him in the Wade and 
Davis Reconstruction act, which with their manifesto 
in support of this measure was urged as vindicating 
the rights of Congress against the usurpations of the 
Executive, and in defiance of the vast popular major- 
ity, which, in reelecting the President on this very 
issue, made in his plan for restoring the Union, held 
even by the majority in Congress that had voted for 
the Wade and Davis bill as decisive of the nation's 
will upon the question. It appears, however, that 
others of the Radicals were still more malcontent than 
the five Senators already alluded to, and the following 
paragraph from the Neiv York Times (Republican) de- 
clares that Mr. Stevens had prefigured for Mr. Lincoln 
the fate that now attends his successor : 

" ' Tliad. Stevens wishes to impeach and try Presi- 
dent Lincoln instead of his successor. The first accu- 
sation that he wished to have made vras, that the cul- 
prit " did erect North Carolina and the other conquered 
territories into States and relations, giving them Gov- 
ernments of his own creation, and appointing over 
them rulers unknown to the laws of the United States, 
and who could not by any such laws hold anj- ottice 
therein." It will be remembered that the celebrated 
North Carolina proclamation was the vrork of Mr. 
Lincoln. It will be remembered that it was Mr. Lin- 
coln who appointed Stanley Governor of North Caro- 
lina, and it was Mr. Lincoln who did several and sun- 
dry other things herein charged. It is well that the 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 449 

Senate and the country have been saved from this 
trial' 

" A few days after this memorable contest in the 
Senate, Mr. Lincohi was inaugiu'ated as President for 
his second term, and the next month closed the rebel- 
lion. He had returned from the scene of its last 
struggle, walked through Kichmond amidst its ruins, 
and mingled, without the ostentation of a conqueror, 
with the people, whom he accosted as fellow-citizens, 
after the surrender. In reaching the President's house 
m Washington, he told the crowd that gathered around, 
' I would much prefer having this demonstration take 
place to-morrow evening, as I would then be much 
better prepared to say what I have to say. Just now 
I am not ready to say anything that one in my posi- 
tion ought to say.' His heart was then laboring with 
the great design of bringing back, with the peace, the 
Union the vrar had suspended. On that next day, 
when the people assembled around his portico, he de- 
livered from a carefulh' prepared MSS. his last speech 
to his countrymen. In his invitation, asking their at- 
tendance, he said, ' you know every thing I say goe& 
into print. If I make a mistake, it docs not atfect 
merely me or you, but the country.' 

" It was thus he prepared the public for the import- 
ant purpose he had to announce. It was to make an 
appeal to the American people to make good the 
pledges that had been given by the Congress, almost 
without a dissenting voice, that the war was waged, 
not for the subjugation, but the restoration of the se 
ceding States with all their rights unimpaired — to make 

29 



450 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BL.VIR, JR. 

good his proclamation invited by Congress, granting 
the amnesty on accepting the emancipation proclama- 
tion, and all the successive cognate measures, which 
he, in virtue of his military rights and responsibilities, 
had pledged himself should be crowned by the con- 
summation of that grand result — the admission of the 
States with 'their rights unimpaired.' Louisiana had 
but the month before, with a Constitution complying 
with all that Congress or the President ever suggested, 
been excluded by chicanery of five members of the 
Senate employing the technicalities of the rules and 
speaking against time in the closing hours of a session 
to shut the door in her face. Louisiana was the pio- 
neer State, and as the rest became prepared, accom- 
modating their Constitutions to the conditions pro- 
claimed before the close of the war, the President 
looked to the harmonious coming together of all the 
States by their voluntary action — with Governments 
erected by themselves, deriving their authority from 
the consent of the governed. In his proclamation of 
dissent to the Wade-Davis bill, he put it on the ground 
that the bill created a Constitution having neither 
origin or adoption in the will of the people, though he 
submitted it to them ' as one very proper plan for the 
loyal people of any State choosing to adopt it.' 

"It was upon this issue that the Kadicals split 
with Mr. Lincoln, and from the mass of the people 
who elected him in spite of their denunciation of him, 
in Congress and out of it, which followed. An at- 
tempt was made to defeat his nomination by the Con- 
vention upon this issue. Another to set it aside by 



SPEECH AT SEYirOUR, CONN. 451 

calling another Republican Convention. A third by 
yetting up Fremont as an independent candidate. But 
all were crushed by public opinion, and his position in 
favor of restoration was sustained in his election by a 
vote of nearly half a million majority. 

" In the crowning speech of his career, the last ap- 
peal to his country, he reviewed the great measure 
which had been defeated by the contrivances of five 
indignant Kadical Senators, in defiance of the will of 
the nation and the legislative body of which they were 
members. He alluded to the attacks made on him as 
an usurper, &c., by the manifesto of Davis and Wade; 
the threat of impeachment by Stevens ; the intrigues 
of his rivals proposing various political machinery for 
his overthrow, in very gentle phrase, saying : ' As a 
general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of at- 
tacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that 
to which I cannot properly answer. In spite of this 
precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I 
am much censured from some supposed agency of mine 
in setting up and seeking to sustain the new State 
Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just 
so much and no more than the public knows.' He 
then gives the history of the plan which General 
Banks, the Military Governor of Louisiana, had dur- 
ing the war, after consulting the loyal people of the 
State upon the President's suggestions, subjected to the 
action of a popular Convention, and made the basis of 
a State Constitution to adapt it to the renewal of its 
relations in the Union. He made suggestions, but no 
exactions, and the 'system of restoration' which the 



452 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

people of Louisiana adopted, was 'one very proper 
plan for the loyal j^eoj^le of any State choosing to adopt 
it.' Many chose to adopt it, and insist upon it, with 
the Wade-Davis plan before them, as well as the Presi- 
dent's suggestions. The Government of Louisiana, 
thus accommodated by vote of its people to meet the 
results of the war, was approved by the whole of Mr. 
Lincoln's cabinet, and ' when the message went to Con- 
gress,' he adds, 'I received many commendations of 
the plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection 
to it from any professed emancipationist came to my 
knowledge until after the news reached Washington 
that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in 
accordance with it' 

" Now let me give in the words of Mr. Lincoln 
what the people had done, which so affected the little 
junto at Washington on the arrival of its news. 

" ' Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore 
slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the 
laws, assumed to be the rightful political power of the 
State, held elections, organized a State government, 
adopted a free constitution, giving the benefit of 
schools equally to black and white, and impowering 
the Legislature to confer the elective franchise upon 
the colored man. The Ledslature has voted already 
to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed 
by Congi-ess abolishing slavery throughout the na- 
tion. These twelve thousand persons are already 
committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in 
the States, committed to the very things and nearly all 
the things the nation wants, and they ask the nation's 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, COKN. 453 

recognition and its assistance to make good that recog- 
nition ; now if we reject and spurn them, we do our ut- 
most to disorganize and disperse them.' 

" He contrasts the design of the Radical faction, 
who had made manifest their purpose to ' to disorganize 
and disperse ' the Union element, with the manner in 
which he and his friends met the advances of the 
twelve thousand voters of Louisiana that sought a 
welcome in the homes of their fathers. To the men 
who, like Sumner, Stevens, and the rest, held that the 
States had committed suicide, that their constitutions 
were tabula rasa, that their people were foreign sub- 
jugated subjects, but who yet agreed with him in the 
idea ' that the sole object of the Government, civil 
and military, in regard to these States is to again get 
them into their proper practical relations' in the Union, 
he said, ' I believe it is not only possible, but, in fact, 
easier to do this without deciding or even considering 
whether these States have ever been out of the Union, 
than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it 
would be utterly immateiial whether they had ever been 
abroad. Let us all join in the acts necessary to restor- 
ing the proper practical relation between these States 
and the Union, and each forever after innocently in- 
dulge his own opinion, whether in doing the acts he 
brought the States from without into the Union, or 
only gave them proper assistance, they never having 
been out of it.' 

" His doctrine was ' they never had been out,' or 
could go out, or be put out ; but,* as a practical man, 
he was willing to put that question aside; all he 



454 LIFE OF, FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

asked of those who assumed to be real Union men 
was 'proper assistance' in bringing about that Union. 
He wanted them to prove their faith by affording 
proper assistance to Louisiana. 'We encourage the 
hearts and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to 
adhere to their work, and argue for it, and proselyte 
for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and 
ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, 
all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and 
energy, and doing to the same end. Grant that he 
desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it 
sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards 
it, than by running backward over them ? Concede 
that the new government of Louisiana is only, to what 
it should be, as is the egg to the fowl ; we shall sooner 
have the fowl by hatching it, than by smashing it.' 

" The last business hours of his life were given to 
this engrossing subject of bringing the States to em- 
brace each other. On the 14th of April/ three days 
after his speech that may be called his legacy to his 
countrymen, and just before he went to the theatre, 
he hnd a cabinet meeting on the policy he had, in con- 
junction with the people of the South, devised to 
make the pacification perfect. His biographer, Mr. 
Barret (formerly the head of the Pension OflSce, and 
who seems to have been on intimate terms with him), 
says : 'At the meeting of the cabinet, 14th April, he 
was in unusually buoyant spirits ; his remaining labors 
evidently seemed lighter than ever before — his glad- 
some humor was noticed by his friends.' He then 
quotes Secretary Stanton's despatch thus: 'April 14. 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 455 

At a cabinet meetlni? at whicli General Grant was 
present to-da}'", the subject of the States and the pros- 
pect of speedy peace was discussed. The President 
was very cheerful and hopeful — spoke very kindly of 
General Lee and others of the Confederacy, and the 
establishment of government in Virginia.' 

" This is very significant of Mr. Stanton, for the 
President's nearest friends had made it known, soon 
after his death, that he had observed that his Secre- 
tary of War had been intimate, before the election, 
with those hostile with his policy, to which Mr. 
Stanton by his despatch would seem again to give in 
his adhesion. General Grant's presence, too, at this 
Cabinet, called to discuss Virginia's establishment in 
her relations with the Union, identifies him with the 
President's labors for that purpose. General Grant 
and Mr. Stanton, in their testimony before the Im- 
peachment Committee, corroborate this statement, Mr. 
Stanton admitting that he prepared the North Caro- 
lina proclamation at Mr. Lincoln's request, and General 
Grant saying that he heard it read in Cabinet in pres- 
ence of Mr. Lincoln, and that the Cabinet concurred in 
the policy it initiated, adding that it was the same 
proclamation in substance, and he believed in language, 
which was afterwards issued by Mr. Johnson when he 
became President. He also testified that he approved 
this programme. Soon after Mr. Lincoln's death, 
General Grant showed his zeal for the great object he 
had at heart by making a journey through Virginia 
and other States, and reporting favorably of their dis- 
position and fitness for restoration, saying that they 



456 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

accepted in good faitli the situation in wLicli it was 
proposed to place them, and suggested an early meet- 
ing in Congress of the Southern- representation with, 
that of the North. "With eagerness and solicitude the 
President, who had triumphed in the war, had sought 
to heal the wounds it had made, to give comfort to the 
broken-hearted, and above all things tending to the 
blessed consummation, to bind up the broken members 
of the Union. General Grant — at the crisis when the 
Junta in Congress, who opened against Lincoln, per- 
sonally, the war they now prosecute with fiendish 
malice against his policy — did not countenance, as he 
does now, their destructive measures. On the contrary, 
he allied himself with his counsels, which Mr. Lincoln, 
in his last speech, tells his countrymen, 'every member 
of the Cabinet fully approved.' What could have 
drawn General Grant's fealty from the patriotic cause 
of restoration, as inaugurated by Lincoln's reelection ? 
It Avas so fully approved by the voice of the nation 
that the great body of the Republicans, who had sup- 
ported the Wade-Davis bill — the antagonist scheme — 
gave it up. It was based on a denial to the people of 
the South of the right to make their own constitutions, 
assuming it for the rump Congress^ — the Representa- 
tives of another section. Lincoln would recognize no 
scheme for the reorganization of the State government, 
unless the people chose to adopt it. This was the 
diverging point between the President and his Radical 
opponents in Congress. Tlie overwhelming voice of 
the nation for a time induced tlie mass of that party to 
resign their opi)osition to his principles and measures. 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 457 

On Lis death tlieir liostiiity revived, but it did not 
manifest itself until tlie meeting of Congress after the 
inauguration of Mr. Johnson. His message, exhibiting 
the acquiescence of the whole South in his predeces- 
sor's policy, gave universal satisfaction. The press at 
home and abroad were full of congratulations on its 
happy auguries. But the malcontents in Congress, 
who had enjoyed during the war unlimited power — 
who had rioted on public plunder — quickly saw that 
if the happy intercourse between the North and South 
was restored, and with it law and order and regular 
business, enormous issues of paper money would cease, 
enormous contracts and jobs would no more be put up . 
as national stakes to be gambled for — cotton specula- 
tions would escape from legislative and judicial manip- 
ulation and become business transactions, and our 
billions of taxation would shrink to modest millions. 
The regulated Government that once made our coun- 
try so prosperous is ill-suited to the genius of public 
men -who before the war felt that nothing but bare 
boarding could be made by Congressional labor, but 
who now find themselves living in magnificent palaces 
of their own — discussing openly and complacently the 
proper moment for changing the Government into one 
in which the President and Senate shall be chosen for 
life — while their friends, the contractors, in their . 
respective States, are erecting villas, manufiicturing 
monopolies, banking establishments, and other grand 
privileged instrumentalities of wealth that dwarf all 
that the best-directed individual industry can do in 
competition. Unsettled times suit i)olitical operators 



458 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

and adventurers whose sl^ill is their only capital. 
When such men reach a place in legislative bodies, 
constitutional rule is to them like a sheepfold against 
wolves. Hence the eagerness with which they seek to 
throw them down. The death of Mr. Lincoln was for 
these wolves like the death of the shepherd. From 
that moment their hopes revived. During his life they 
had been diiven in despair to filibustering to keep the 
South out of the fold, now they saw tlfe ten States 
exposed, only protected by the strength of one man of 
the section already vanquished by arms. Lincoln's 
power was derived from his popularity in the victorious 
States. The men whom Lincoln had kept at bay were 
themselves the leaders in that section, and airainst them 
the Vice-President could not maintain the mastery as 
the President himself had in the reijion that elected 
him to power. Hence the men who seized the oppor- 
tunity of Lincoln's death, rejoicing in it as opening the 
way to make spoil of the unresisting States of the 
South, to use them for the purposes of their ambition 
and avarice, were glad, as dissembling mourners, to 
follow the hearse of the dead President throusrhout the 
North, pretending homage to the statesman whose 
whole policy they had attempted to thwart. They 
had been defeated and rebuked for it by his reelection, 
and by that reelection were called back to accomplish 
it, in spite of their reluctance. The revenge they 
dared not try to wreak on the principal by whom they 
were once repulsed, they resolved to take of his suc- 
cessor, the Vice-President. The acclaim he received 
for his message, adopting ;Mr. Lincoln's Union pro- 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUR, CONN. 459 

gramme, had Lardly ceased to ring in his ears when 
old Tbad. Stevens and Lis subterranean caucus broke 
their cell and denounced the Presidential plan, re- 
pulsed the Southern States which had adopted it, and 
sent their Representatives home from the Capitol. 
From that day to this Mr. Johnson ceased to be Presi- 
dent, even de facto. A part of Lincoln's Cabinet, 
which he retained, always at heart hostile to Lincoln's 
policy, betrkyed Johnson to the Rump Congress and 
used the power of his administration to destroy him. 
The impeachment now is necessary only to satisfy the 
malice which would have the gratification of a formal 
removal. Thad. Stevens threatened it against Lincoln 
to accomplish what is already practically against 
Johuson. The Rump have exerted almost despotic 
power from the death of Mr. Lincoln. They have 
complete command of the army, all orders to be obeyed 
beino: derived throusrh Grant and Sherman issuino: 
them, and the civil departments are, with their patron- 
age, almost entirely at their devotion throughout the 
country as well as in Washington. The laws are made 
over the President. Johnson could do nothing but 
fulminate vetoes to make their daring acts in defiance 
of the Constitution the more conspicuous. They fell 
on the bronze of Thaddeus and his comrades as Pi-iam's 
darts from the brazen shield of Pyrrhus. All the 
miseries of the country for the last three years are 
attributable to the Jacobins and their committees that 
have traversed and worried the country. The military 
government to which the South has been consigned, to 
give the army the control of both South and North in 



4 GO LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

the election of President and the next Congress under 
the sham of negro suffrage, is but a blending of Crom- 
well's and Louis Napoleon's precedent to make an em- 
pire out of universal suffrage* controlled by the army. 
No one can mistake the real issue upon which the 
Radicals separated from Mr. Lincoln, nor will it be 
denied that whenever it has been fairly placed before 
the country it has been decided against them. It was 
thus decided in his renomination an^ reelection. 
Taught by this experience they avoided making this 
issue in the election by which the present Congress 
was returned, and actually went into it upon an amend- 
ment to the Constitution which conceded the right of 
the States to determine the question of suffrage for 
themselves. Having thus fraudulently secured a new 
lease of power, they promptly violated the principle 
of their own amendment and passed their reconstruc- 
tion acts giving universal suffrage in the South to the 
blacks, and disfranchising as many of the white men 
as they deemed sufficient to secure negro supremacy in 
those States. Thus the issue came once more before 
the people of the North, and in every election which 
has laeen held since the passage of these acts the Radi- 
cals have been ignomiuiously defeated, and the attempt 
to impose negro suffrage rebuked. They nevertheless 
persist in forcing these condemned measures upon the 
country. They are determined to maintain them 
against the clear majority of the people of both sections. 
Under these acts three millions of ignorant negroes 
have been made supreme over six millions of the white 
race in the South, and the Congressional representation 



SPEECH AT SEYMOUK, CONN. 461 

and electoral vote thus controlled is relied upon to 
overcome the majority against the Radicals in the 
North. Negro supremacy is not confined to the South ; 
it extends itself to the North, and enables a minority 
to control a majority in both sections. It is clear now 
that the Rump Congress has constituted itself the 
supreme power — the entire Government. The Presi- 
dent is subjugated and obeys its laws, constitutional or 
not. The Supreme Court, whilst ready with its- judg- 
ment on the question of conflicting constitutional power 
between the Congress and the President, submits to a 
law passed by Congress made expressly to forbid its 
discharge of this, its constitutional function. The army 
takes and obeys leaders given through General Grant 
and Secretary Stanton, independently of the Chief 
Magistrate, the Commander-in-Chief, in virtue of a 
law passed by Congress to strip the President of his , 
direct and express constitutional authority ; Grant and 
Stanton having acted on the principle that their duty 
made such law their rule, the order of the President to 
the contrary notwithstanding. This makes Congress 
absolute. The next step is to make perpetual this 
absolutism in Congress.. This is to be accomplished 
by the electing, through the negro vote polled under 
army orders, twenty Senators and some fifty Repre- 
sentatives fj'om the disfranchised States. This acces- 
sion, even if the Radicals poll only a considerable 
minority in the free States, will carry the Presidency 
and a sufiicient vote into the next Congress, added to 
the negro-elected Senators and Representatives, to 
make the Constitution what the Radicals want it to be. 



462 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

They may make tlie President hold for one term of 
ten yearv«!, or for life, and so of the Senators and Rep- 
resentatives. This was the process by which the Gov- 
ernments of England and France emerged from their 
revolution, establishing republics into empires, with a 
monarch and a nobility, to substitute a popular sover- 
eignty." 

As the time wore on it became known that Gen- 
eral Blair would support the candidate of the Demo- 
cratic party in the Presidential Campaign of 1868, 
and many of his friends began to advance his -name for 
nomination by the Convention. As the meeting of the 
Convention drew nearer. General Blair yielded to the 
solicitations of his friends, and consented to allow his 
name to the brought before that body. In order, how- 
ever, that there miofht be no misunderstandinsT^ as to 
the views he entertained, he made public a letter which 
he had written to a gentleman in ]\Iissouri, in reply to 
certain questions propounded by the latter : 

'* Washington, June 30. 
" Colonel Jas. 0. Broadhead. 

" Dear Colonel : In reply to your inquiries, I beg 
leave to say that I leave to you to determine, on con- 
sultation with my friends from Missouri, whether my 
name shall be presented to the Democratic Convention, 
and to submit the Ibllowing, as what I consider the 
real and only issue in this contest. 

" The reconstruction policy of the Radicals will be 
complete before the next election ; the States, so long 
excluded, will have been admitted ; negro suifrage es- 



LETTER TO COL. BROADHEJk.D. 463 

tablished and the carpet-baggers installed in their seats 
in both branches of Congress. There is no possibility 
of changing the political character of the Senate, even 
if the Democrats shonld elect their President and a 
majority of the popular branch of Congress. We 
cannot, therefore, undo the Radical plan of reconstruc- 
tion by Congressional action ; the Senate will continue a 
bar to its repeal. Must we submit to it ? How can 
it be overthrown ? It can only be overthrown by the 
authority of the Executive, who is sworn to maintain 
the Constitution, and who will fail to do his duty if he 
allows the Constitution to perish under a series of Con- 
gressional enactments which are in palpable violation 
of its fundamental principles. 

" If the President elected by the Democracy enfor- 
ces or permits others to enforce these Ileconstruction 
acts, the Radicals, by the accession of twenty spu- 
rious Senators and fifty Representatives will control 
both branches of Congress, and his administration 
•mil be as powerless as the present one of ]\Ir. John- 
son. 

"There is but one way to restore the Government and 
the Constitution, and that is for the President elect to 
declare these acts null and void, compel the array to 
undo its usurpations at the South, disperse the carpet- 
bag State governments, allow the white people to reor- 
sranize their own o;overnments and elect Senators and 
Representatives. The House of Representatives will 
contain a majority of Democrats from the North, and 
they Avill admit the Representatives elected by the 
white people of the South, and with the co-oj^eration 



464 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

of the President it will not be difficult to compel the 
Senate to submit once more to the obligations of the 
Constitution. It will not be able to withstand the 
public judgment, if distinctly invoked and clearly ex- 
pressed, on this fundamental issue, and it is the sure 
wav to avoid all future strife to put this issue plainly 
to the country. 

" I repeat that this is the real and only question 
which we should allow to control us : Shall we submit 
to the usurpations by which the Government has been 
overthrown, or shall we exert ourselves for its full and 
com])lete restoration. It is idle to talk of bonds, 
greenbacks, gold, the public faith and the public credit. 
What can a Democratic President do in regard to 
any of these with a Congress in both branches Qon- 
trolled by the carpet-baggers and their allies ? He 
will be powerless to stop the supplies by whicli idle 
negroes are organized into political clubs — by which an 
army is maintained to protect these vagabonds in their 
outrages upon the ballot. These, and things like these, 
eat up the revenues and resources of the Government 
and destroy its credit, make the difference between gold 
and o-reenbacks. We must restore the Constitution 
before we can restore the finances, and to do this 
we must have a President who will execute the will of 
the people by trampling into dust the usurpations of 
Cono-ress, known as the Reconstruction acts. I wish 
to Stand before the Convention upon this issue, but 
it is one which embraces every thing else that is of 
value in its large and comprehensive results. It is 
the one thiuG: that includes all that is worth a contest, 



STATEMENT OF THE " HERALD." 465 

and without it tliere is nothing that gives dignity, 
honor, or value to the struo-o-le. 

' CO 

" Your friend, 

"Frank P. Blair," 

This letter* gave great offence to the Radicals, 

* The New YorTc Herald, during the session of the Convention pub- 
lished the following interesting account of an interview with General 
Blair : 

" The Missouri delegation being a unit in favor of General Frank Blair 
for President, and nifiny of the "Western men, as well as a strong party 
in the Soldiers and Sailors' Convention, supporting him, our reporter 
called on the General yesterday at the Worth House with a view 
of learning the grounds on which he based his hopes of nominalion by 
the Democratic party. General Blair very courteously stated that he 
was very willing to make known his principles, although his recent letter 
should have settled that matter. Our reporter ackowledged having read 
the letter, but with a view of eliciting a clearer statement asked if the 
General did not consider, on a reconsideration of the matter, that his 
views on the reconstruction laws and the duties of the next President in 
regard to them might not have the effect of frightening many thousands 
who, although not Radicals, echo General Grant's demand for peace? 
Tiie General then spoke in substance as follows : — 

" I do not think that people would be alarmed at the prospect of un- 
doing the infamous acts of Congn ss, and I do not believe in lying and 
double dealing even for the office of President of the United States. It 
IS better that the truth should be known at once. Alarm the people ? 
Why, they are alarmed now. The country is in revolution ; the liberties 
of one-half of the citizens of this country have been destroyed, and that 
of the other half threatened. Our commerce has been swept from the 
seas, and the republic is insulted in the persons of her citizens by a gov- 
ernment hostile during our war and hostile still. It will not serve the 
cause of the people by putting in a President with the same set of opin- 
ions as the present occupant of the White House. What more could 
Chase or Pendleton do than Johnson? Nothing more; and the car- 
pet-bag Congress, which will virtually rule the country, no matter who is 
President (unless means not yet tried are used to prevent it), will merely 
have a new ' man at the other end of the avenue ' to laugh at and over- 
ride. If the madness of Congress is not checked we will have in the 
South an Ireland or a Poland, and periodical insurrections will give vent 
30 



466 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JK. 

and they, of course professed to view it as a threat 
on the part of Gen. Blair. Since the publication 
of the letter they have been whining through the 
country about " Blair's revolution" until they have 
drawn not a little ridicule upon themselves. Gen. 
Blair, however, was far from threatening a resort 
to illegal measures. He meant simply that the work 
of the Badicals in the South, being illegal, could, 
and ought to be, undone peaceably and by legal 
means. His brother, the Hon. Montgomery Blair, 
in a speech recently delivered in Virginia, makes plain 
the meaning of the letter. Mr. Blair says : 

" This is the language called revolutionary, and 
said to menace. There is no suchthouo-ht in it. It is 

o 

an appeal to the ballot, and it is the Radicals alone 
who talk of war and are making preparations for it. 
In connection with the elections. General Blair and 
the Democratic party invoke the judgment of the 

to the aspirations of tlie people for liberty. There are indications, too, 
that the West will not quietly submit to be ruined by the Radicals much 
longer. Under these circumstances I think it is only right and proper 
that the people should know where I stand, and why I am a candidate 
for the Presidency. I think that the financial and every other question 
started to blind the eyes of the people and conceal the real issue is of small 
importance at present. The country must fir.-t be saved from the im- 
pending ruin and the supremacy of the constitution established before 
those questions can bo properly taken up. The first duty of a Democrat- 
ic government should be to vindicate American honor in the mat:cr of 
the imprisonment and punishment as felons of American citizens in Eng- 
land and Ireland on suspicion and without proof. The prisoners should 
be demanded at the cannon's mouth, with proper apologies and a suffi- 
cient indemnity for the outrages.' 

" Our reporter, after thanking the General for his ready courtesy, 
which contrasted very favorably with the conduct of other parties inte- 
rested in the Presidential nomination, then withdrew. 



SPEECH OF HON. M. BLAIR. 467 

people on the issue joined with the Radicals on the 
validity of their measures, and they propose to carry 
the judgment of the people into effect by the officer 
elected for that purpose by them. There can be no 
war unless the Radicals make it to resist the judgment 
of the people who are or ought to be final arbiters. 
What, then, does this outcry from the Radicals mean, 
but that they will resist the judgment asked for by the 
Democracy. They deceived the people as to their in- 
tentions in respect to these measures, and secured their 
present power in Congress by denying that they con- 
templated any such abuses of it. They hastened to 
prostitute it to subvert the civil government and set up 
military governments in the South, now to be used 
to defeat the wishes of the people in the North, and 
then put forward the commander of the army as their 
candidate, and gave him the army to elect himself, 
substantially inviting him to seize power, whether 
elected or not by the people. This conduct shows 
their determination to forestall and defeat the will of 
the people. The menace of war which they now make 
themselves, but falsely impute to their opponents, be- 
cause the judgment of the people is invoked against 
them, oidy illustrates and puts in broad light their de- 
termination to hold power at all hazards. That, at 
least, is what the people believe is their resolve. It is, 
however, but a brag game. The object is to intimi- 
date the people into acquiescence of their rule. Gen- 
eral Grant ominously says, ' Let us have peace ' with 
the same meaning, and they are winding up the ses- 
sion with a distribution of arms among their followers, 



468 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

to give emphasis to the language of Grant and his 
myrmidons. They alone disturb the public peace. 
They alone threaten to resist the will of the people in 
the lawful exercise of their authority to pass judgment 
on the acts of their unfaithful servants, and restore the 
Constitution. Tlie Democracy have submitted with- 
out resistance to the most glaring violations of the 
Constitution. Every species of tyranny and outrage 
which have disgraced the meanest and bloodiest tyrants 
in the world has been borne with patience, looking to 
the day of deliverance by the ballot box in November 
next. Appalled hy the prospect of being at last 
brought to account, these corrupt and ruthless oppres- 
sors are attempting to drive the people from the polls 
and compel a still further submission by arming their 
followers and threatening war if they shall pronounce 
an-ainst them. But there is no dano-er. ' The sure 
way,' says General Blair, with truth, ' to avoid all 
strife, is to put the issue plainly to the country.' That 
has been done now. Let the people decide against 
these usurpers and they will not have a corporal's 
guard to sustain them. General Grant will not lind a 
soldier, not even a colored soldier, who would resist 
that judgment. Napoleon, backed by his millions of 
armed men, cannot withstand the voice of France. 
Can the carpet-baggers survive the power to which 
alone they owe their official life. The dictators of the 
caucus at Washington, like the Bombas of Naples, 
will become objects of derision, when, with loss of 
power, they cease to be feared. Their creatures will 
become yet more contemptible. The transfer of the 



RADICALS ATTEMPT TO BRIBE GEN. BLAIR. 469 

executive power by the people to the hands of Horatio 
Seymour, will end the struggle at once in all its forms, 
to the joy of a once more united, happy, and free 
people. Nor have I the least misgivings but that this 
will be done. In the address I made here a year ago 
I ventured the prediction that the people will repudi- 
ate the faithless men whose insane lust of power had 
driven them to violate every guarantee for liberty. 
Our Democratic leaders were so discouraged that they 
made but little eiFort at the canvass of last year. The 
result was, nevertheless, that the Radicals were signally 
defeated. This forced them to fly to Grant, but tlie 
elections since he consented to cooperate with them 
show that people are not to be diverted from their 
purpose of restoring the Constitution by the influence 
of his name, or deterred from doing their duty to 
themselves and their posterity by brandishing his 
sword before their eyes. They want the assurance of 
peace which is afforded by the Government of law 
and not the peace of despotism, or of the reign of 
terror, of which Grant, following in the footstcj^s of 
every other military chieftain, has become the minis- 
ter." 

The Republicans were very unwilling to lose the 
cooperation of Gen. Blair, and as a means of drawing 
him back to their organization, secretly tendered him 
the nomination of Vice President on the ticket with 
Gen. Grant,'" but he declined it. His separation from 
the Republican party was the result of his honest con- 

* Speech of Hon. M. Blair, at Rockbridge, Alum Springs, Va., July 
25tl), 1868. 



470 LITE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

victions of duty, and he was not to be drawn back by 
bribery. 

When the Democratic Convention assembled in 
New York on the 4th of July 1868, it was seen 
that General Blair's friends were strong in numbers. 
The Missouri delegation was a unit for him, and his 
su})porters were numerous in the Regular Convention 
and in that of the Soldiers and Sailors. 

On the fifth day of the session, Gen. Blair was 
formally placed in nomination by Mr. Broadhead of 
Missouri, who said : 

" We have now reached tlie fifth day of our session 
without any successful result. I now ask leave to pre- 
sent to the Convention another man for their consider- 
ation. I will nominate General Francis P. Blair, of 
Missouri. It is not necessary in this Convention that 
I should attempt to repeat his honorable services as a 
soldier or as a statesman, for they are known to the 
whole country. Without desiring to disparage the 
qualifications of any other of the distinguished gentle- 
men Avhose names are presented for the consideration 
of this Convention, I will only say that General Blair 
is eminently possessed of those qualifications most 
needed at this time — firmness of purpose, moral 
courage, and indomitable wiU. He will not be readily 
turned from a purpose once deliberately formed, al- 
though another coordinate department of the Govern- 
ment may place itself in the way of its performance ; 
and as President of the United States he would pre- 
serve, protect, and defend the Constitution ; and he 
would give to it a living meaning which, in the absence 



THE NEW YORK CONVENTION. 471 

of any judicial interpretation to the contrary, gives to 
the President the right and imposes upon him the duty 
of refusing to execute unconstitutional laws. (Ap- 
plause.) If we would meet the demands of this crisis, 
if we would not shrink from the issues of this hour, 
we must by some tangible form of action maintain the 
independence of the Executive. Congressional des- 
potism is the great evil against which we have to con- 
tend. It is the fruitful source of all our troubles. It 
is that which is riving asunder the framework of our 
ffovernment and substitutino; the \'iews of faction for 
the requirements of the Constitution. We want a 
man at the head of the government who knows the 
duties of the executive station, and knowing, dare 
maintain them. Such a man is the gentleman whose 
name I now present to the consideration of this Con- 
vention." 

The choice of the Convention, however, fell upon 
^Ir. Seymour — a selection which was promptly and 
heartily endorsed by General Blair. 

The Convention met in the afternoon, after a brief 
recess, for the purpose of nominating a candidate for 
the Vice-Presidency. It was felt by all that the selec- 
tion of General Blair would be the wisest and most 
fitting choice that could be made, and it seemed to be 
very well understood that he would receive a heavy 
vote on the first ballot. 

When the Convention was called to order, Mr. 
Sparks, of Illinois, nominated General John A. Mc- 
Clernand of that State ; but General McClemand with- 
drew his name. Hon. Asa C. Dodge, of low^a, was 



472 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

then nominated by the delegation from that State ; and 
General Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Kansas, by the Kansas 
delegation. The name of Kentucky being called. Gen- 
eral Preston, of that State, an ex-general officer of the 
Confederate army, rose and said : 

"Mr. President, 1 am instructed unanimously by 
the State of Kentucky, by its delegates here assembled, 
to place in nomination a gentleman of great distinction 
in his State and in the country ; one in the prime of 
manhood, distinguished by his devotion to the Union — 
having served it both in a civil and military capacity 
with the utmost honor, and obtained a reputation in 
the army second to no man of his grade. Kentucky 
feels that this nomination is due to the great West, and 
no Southern State has presented any nominee for any 
place, as you will observe here ; but I feel that it is ap- 
propriate — for we have entertained different opinions 
from him — to state that I am instructed now to nom- 
inate him in order to testify that we, the soldiers of the 
South, stretch forward our hands to the soldiers of the 
North (applause) in the spirit of a noble amity that 
your resolutions have inculcated. (Applause.) It is 
with that view, Sir, after consultation with the North- 
ern delegations, and one of the most powerful, that the 
duty is devolved upon me of making this nomination. 
I now have the privilege, therefore, of nominating as a 
candidate for Vice-President of the United States, 
General Francis P. Blair, of Missouri. (Applause.)" 

As General Preston resumed his seat, General 
Steadman, of Louisiana, rose and said : 

"Mr. President: I rise, Sir, as one of the humble 



SPEECH OF GEN. STEADMAN. 473 

representatives of the United States Army in the late 
war, holding a seat in the Convention, to second, on 
behalf of Louisiana, the nomination of my comrade 
in arms, Major-General Frank P. Blair. (Applause.) 
When this Convention adjourned, I went immediately 
to tlie headquarters of the Soldiers'* and Sailors'* Exec- 
utive Committee, on Union Square. I met there some 
ten cr twelve gentlemen, who were distinguished in 
the army, and consulted them in regard to their choice 
as a candidate as a Vice-President of the United States, 
and by a unanimous vote of all who were present, I 
was requested to say to this Convention, without dis- 
paragement to the name of any other soldier that has 
been presented here, or may be presented, that General 
Frank P. Blair would be acceptable to the soldiers of 
the United States Army. (Applause.) In the exhibi- 
tion of magnanimity that has been made in this Con- 
vention by the soldiers of the Confederate army, in 
cominn; up and szivino; a contradiction to the cliaro;e of 
the Padical party that they did not accept sincerely 
the situation ; in casting their votes as they did in 
this Convention for that distinguished soldier of the 
United States Army, Major-General Winficld Scott 
Hancock, they have given renewed assurance of their 
devotion to the Union, of their willingness to accept 
the issues of the war by presenting to this Convention, 
through General Preston — whom I met on the bloody 
field of Chickamauga — the name of Major-General Fran- 
cis P. Blair. (Loud applause.) I feci therefore author- 
ized to say that if General Blair, is nominated his nom- 
ination will meet with a response from every brave 



474 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

and true man that fought on either side, who desires 
to see peace and prosperity restored to our common 
country." (Applause.) 

General Steadman was followed by General Wade 
Hampton, of South Carolina, who spoke as follows : 

" Mr. Chairman — The only reason I can give why 
my State has done me the honor to ask me to speak 
for her on this occasion is, I suppose, that I met the 
distinguished gentleman whose name has been present- 
ed by Kentucky on more than one field. Our State 
wishes me to say to the soldiers, and in reply to the 
remarks of the gentleman from Illinois, the distin- 
guished soldier from Illinois, that the soldiers of the 
South cordially, heartily, and cheerfully accept the 
right hand of friendship which is extended to men. 
(Cries of 'good,' and cheers.) We wish to show that 
we appreciate the kindness and cordiality that has been 
extended to us by all classes. We wish particularly 
to make an acknowledgment to the Federal soldiers 
who have met us so cordially and so friendly. It is 
due to them, I think, that they should have the second 
place upon the ticket. It is due to that Convention 
which so cordially approved your platform ; it is due 
to the South, and I, for my State, most hearlily and 
cordially second the nomination of General Blair." 

General Hampton's speech was greeted with loud 
applause, and when order was restored, the first ballot 
was taken, the result of which was announced b}' the 
Secretary, as follows : 

'' The vote stands upon Vice-President, as follows : 
Whole vote of the Electoral College, 317, which were 



STATEMENT OF THE VOTE. 



475 



given unanimously for Frank P. Blair, of Mis- 
souri." 

The following is a table of the first ballot for Vice- 



President : 












Blair. 




Blair. 


Alabama, .... 8 


Nebraska, . . . 


. 3 


Arkansas, . 






5 


Nevada, . . . 


. 3 


California, . 






. 5 


New Hampshire, 


. . 5 


Connecticut, 






6 


New Jersey, 


. . 7 


Delaware, , 






. 3 


New York, . . 


. . 33 


Florida, . . . 






3 


North Carolina, 


. . 9 


Georgia, . . . 






9 


Ohio, .... 


. . 21 


Illinois, . . . 






16 


Oregon, . . . 


. . 3 


Indiana, . . , 






13 


Pennsylvania, . 


. 26 


Iowa, . . . 






8 


Rhode Island, . 


. . 4 


Kansas, . 






3 


South Carolina, 


. . 6 


Kentucky, . 






. 11 


Tennessee, . . 


. . 12 


Louisiana, . 






. 7 


Texas, . . . 


. . 6 


Maine, . . . 






7 


Vermont, . . 


. . 5 


Maryland, . 






. 7 


Virginia, . . 


. . 10 


Massachusetts, 






12 


West Virginia, 


. . 5 


Michigan, . 






8 


Wisconsin, . . 


. 6 


Minnesota, . . 






4 






Mississippi, . 






7 


Total, . . . 


. 317 


Missouri, 






11 







Three hearty cheers greeted this announcement, 
and another scene of enthusiasm ensued. The Chair- 
man hammered with his gavel, and the Secretary in- 
formed the delegates that the vote had not yet been 
announced. 



The Chairman- 



-" The unanimous vote having been 



476 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

cast for Francis P. Blair, of Missouri, for Yice-Prosi- 
dent, he is declared the candidate of the Democratic 
party for the Vice-Presidency." (Great cheering.) 

A Committee was appointed by the Convention to 
wait upon Mr. Seymour and Gen. Blair, and inform 
them of their nominations. As we have said in the 
sketch of Governor Seymour, this formal announce- 
ment was made in Tammany Hall on the evening after 
the Convention adjourned sine die. The hall was 
thronged with a brilliant audience, among whom Avere 
many of the most distinguished statesmen of the coun- 

The nomination for the Presidency was first ten- 
dered to Mr. Seymour, who replied in a few eloquent 
remarks. Then turning to Gen. Blair, who had by 
this time advanced to the front of the stage, General 
Morgan addressed him as follows : 

" General Blair : The Committee appointed by the 
Convention have made it my pleasing duty, sir, to an- 
nounce to you your unanimous nomination as the 
Democratic candidate for the Vice-President of the 
United States — (applause) — and in tendering to you, 
sir, this nomination, I feel sure that it will not only be 
hailed with acclamation by your fellow-citizens through- 
out the United States, but by thousands of your gal- 
lant comrades on many a well-fought field — (applause) — 
and who will once again rally to the stars and stripes 
and the defence of free institutions." (Applause.) 

After the applause which greeted his presence on 
the stand had subsided, General Blair said : 

" Air. Chairman : I accept the platform of resolu- 



ACCEPTANCE OF THE NOMINATION. 477 

tions passed by the late Democratic Convention, and I 
accept their nomination — (great cheering) — with feel- 
ings of profound gratitude, and, sir, I thank you for 
the very kind manner in which you bave already con- 
veyed to me the decision of the Democratic Conven- 
tion. I accept the nomination with the conviction 
that your nomination for the Presidency is one which 
will carry us to certain victory — (applause) — and be- 
cause I believe that the nomination is the most proper 
nomination that could be made by the Democratic 
party. (Applause.) The contest which we wage is 
for the restoration of constitutional government — 
(cheers) — and it is proper that we should make this 
contest under the lead of one who has given his life to 
the maintenance of constitutional government. (Ap- 
plause.) We are to make the contest for the restora- 
tion of those great principles of government which be- 
long to our race. (Great applause.) And, my fellow- 
citizens, it is most proper that we should select for our 
leader a man not from military life, but one who has 
devoted himself to civil pursuits ; who has given him- 
self to the study and the understanding of the Consti- 
tution and its maintenance with all the force of reason 
and judgment. (Applause.) My fellow-citizens, I 
have said that the contest before us was one for the 
restoration of our government, it is also one for the 
restoration of our race. (Applause, long continued.) 
It is to prevent the people of our race from being 
exiled from their homes — (cheers) — exiled from the 
Government which they formed and created for them- 
selves and for their children, and to prevent them from 



478 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

being driven out of the country or trodden under foot 
by an inferior and semi-barbarous race. (Applause.) 
In this country we shall have the sympathy of every 
man who is worthy to belong to the white race. (Ap- 
plause.) AVhat civilized people on earth would refuse 
to associate with themselves in all the rights and 
honors and dignity of their country such men as Lee 
and Johnson ? What civilized country on earth would 
fail to do honor to those who, fiixhtins: for an erroneous 

JO o 

cause, yet distinguished themselves by gallantry in 
that service ? (Applause.) In that contest for which 
they are sought to be disfranchised and to be exiled 
from their homes — in that contest they have proved 
themselves worthy to be our peers. (Applause.) My 
fellow-citizens, it is not my purpose to make any long 
address — (cries of ' go on ') — but simply to express my 
gratitude for the great and distinguished honor which 
has been conferred upon me. 

" A voice — ' You are worthy of it.' 

" General Blair. — And from my heart to reiterate 
the words of thanks that fell from my lips when I 
arose." 

(Renewed cheering, during whicb General Blair 
retired.) 

The crowd in the street having called for General 
Blair, he made his appearance before them after the 
conclusion of the ceremonies in the hall, and was re- 
ceived with deafening shouts of applause. He then 
spoke as follows : 

" Gentlemen : I return you my heartfelt thanks 
for the kindness with which you have received me here 



SPEECH OF GEN. BLAIR. 479 

this evening, I value, my fellow-citizens, tliis un- 
bounded enthusiasm, not because I consider it any per- 
sonal compliment to myself, but because I see in it 
what no man can mistake — that the people of this 
country have aroused themselves, and intend to take 
back their Government in their own hands (applause), 
that they intend to redeem themselves (applause) from 
the rule (a voice — ' misrule ') of this dynasty that has 
disgraced and degraded the country. (Great cheering 
and cries of ' good, good.') That they intend to assert 
the riirhts of American citizens which have been taken 
away from them by the military power of the South 
(applause), and the rights of American citizens in for- 
eign lands as well. (Enthusiastic cheering.) My fel- 
low-citizens, the Radicals now in power (groans and 
hisses.) I wish I could groan as loud as all of you. 
(Laughter.) They have sought, fellow-citizens, to make 
a new Ireland of America. (Groans.) I know, fellow- 
citizens, that it is imjDossible for me to speak so as to 
be heard in this immense audience. (Cries of 'go on.') 
I know that standing in such a dense mass as you are 
now standing in, is not conducive to comfort, and that 
it will be better for me to desist. (Cries of ' go on.') I 
therefore again, fellow-citizens, return you my heartfelt 
thanks for your kindness, and beseech you to make 
your assault upon the Radicals this fall with the same 
serried ranks as I now see here assembled before me. 
I take my seat with the conviction that victory is sure." 
(Applause, long and loud, during which General Blair 
retired.) 

A few days later. Gen. Blair forwarded to the Com- 



480 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

mittee the following formal letter of acceptance of the 
nomination of the Convention : 

" General George W. Morgan^ Chairman of the Com- 
mittee of the National Democratic Convention : 

" General : I take the earliest opportunity of reply- 
ing to your letter notifj'ing me of my nomination for 
Vice-President of the United States by the National 
Democratic Convention recently held in the City of 
New York. 

" I accept without hesitation the nomination ten- 
dered in a manner so gratifying, and give you and the 
Committee my thanks for the very kind and compli- 
mentary language in which you have conveyed to me 
the decision of the Convention. 

" I have carefully read the resolutions adopted by 
the Convention, and most cordially concur in every 
principle and sentiment they announce. 

" My opinion upon all the questions which dis- 
criminate the great contending parties have been freely 
expressed on all suitable occasions, and I do not deem 
it necessary at this time to reiterate them. 

" The issues upon which the contest turns are clear 
and cannot be obscured or distorted by the sophistries 
of our adversaries. They all resolve themselves into 
the old and ever recurrino; stru^-o-le of a few men to 
absorb the political power of the nation. This effort 
under every conceivable name and disguise has always 
characterized the opponents of the Democratic party, 
but at no time has the attempt assumed a phase so open 
and darinn; as in this contest. The adversaries of free 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 481 

and constitutional Government, in defiance of the ex- 
press language of tlie Constitution, have erected a 
militarj^ despotism in ten of the States of the Union, 
have taken from the President the power vested in him 
by the supreme law, and have deprived the Supreme 
Court of its jurisdiction. The right of trial by jury, 
and the great writ of right, the habeas corpus — shields 
of safety for every citizen, which have descended to us 
from the earliest traditions of our ancestors, and which 
our Revolutionary fathers sought to secure to their 
posterity forever in the fundamental charter of our lib- 
erties — have been ruthlessly trampled under foot by 
the frairment of a Con2;ress : whole States and com- 
munities of people of our race have been attainted, 
convicted, condemned, and deprived of their rights as 
citizens, without presentment or trial or witnesses, but 
by Congressional enactment of ex post facto laws, and 
in defiance of the constitutional prohibition, denying 
even to a full and loyal Congress the authority to pass 
any bill of attainder or ex post facto law. The same 
usurping authority has substituted as electors in place 
of the men of our own race, thus illegally attainted and 
disfranchised, a host of ignorant negroes who are sup- 
ported in idleness with the public money, and are com- 
bined together to strip the white race of their birth- 
right through the management of Freedmen's bureaux 
and emissaries of conspirators in other States. And 
to complete the oppression, the military power of the 
nation has been placed at then' disposal in order to 
make this barbarism supreme. The military leader, 
under whose prestige this usurping Congress has taken 

31 



k 
482 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

refuge — since the condemnation of their schemes by 
the free people of the North, in elections of the last 
year — and whom they have selected as their candidate, 
to shield tliemselves from the result of their own wick- 
edness and crime, has announced his acceptance of the 
nomination, and his willingness to maintain their usur- 
pations over eight millions of white j^eople at the South, 
fixed to the earth with his bayonets. He exclaims^ 
' Let us have peace ! ' ' Peace reigns in Warsaw,' was 
the announcement which, heralded the doom of the 
liberties of a nation. 'The empire is peace,' exclaim- 
ed Bonaparte when freedom, and its defenders expired 
under the sharp edge of his sword. The peace to which 
Grant invites us is the peace of despotism and death. 
Those who seek to restore the Constitution by execu- 
ting the will of the people condemning the reconstruc- 
tion acts, already j^ronounccd in the elections of last 
year (and which will, I am convinced, be still more 
emphatically expressed by the election of the Demo- 
cratic candidate as President of the United States), are 
denounced as revolutionists by the partisans of this vin- 
dictive Congress. Negro suffrage (which the popular 
vote of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Michigan, Connecticut, and other States lias condemn- 
ed as expressly against the letter of the Constitution) 
must stand, because their Senators and Eepresenta- 
tives have willed it. If the people shall again condemn 
these atrocious measures by the election of the Demo- 
cratic candidate for President, they must not be dis- 
turbed ! Although decided to be unconstitutional by 
the Supreme Court, and although the President is 



LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 483 

sworn to maintain and support the Constitution, the will 
of a fraction of a Congress, reinforced with its par- 
tisan emissaries sent to the South, and supported 
there by the soldiery, must stand against the will 
of the people and the decisions of the Supreme Court 
and the solemn oath of the President to maintain 
and support the Constitution ! It is revolutionary to 
excute the will of the people ! It is revolutionary to 
execute the judgment of the Supreme Court ! It is 
revolutionary^ in the President to keep inviolate his 
oath to sustain the Constitution ! This false construc- 
tion of the vital principle of our Government is the 
last resort of those who would have their arbitrary 
reconstruction sway and supersede our time-honored 
institutions. The nation will say that the Constitution 
must be restored and the will of the people again pre- 
vail. The appeal to the peaceful ballot to attain this 
end is not Avar — is not revolution. They make war 
and revolution who attemj^t to arrest this quiet mode 
of putting aside military despotism and the usurpa- 
tions of a frao;ment of a Cono:ress assertinir absolute 
power over that benign system of regulated liberty 
left us by our fathers. This must be allowed to take 
its course. This is the 07ily road to peace. It will 
come with the election of the Democratic candidate, and 
not ivith the election of that mailed icarrior whose bay- 
onets are now at the throats of eight millions of peo- 
ple in the South, to compel them to support him as a 
candidate for the Presidency, and to submit to the domi- 
nation of an alien race of semi-barbarous men. No 
perversion of truth or audacity of misrepresentation 



484 LIFE or FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

can exceed that ivliich hails this candidoM in arms as 
an angel of peace. 

" I am, very respectfully, 

" Your most obedient servant, 

" Fra>'k p. Blair." 

After the close of the Convention, Gen. Blair made 
a visit to the far West, on business connected with the 
Pacific Pailroad, and while at Omaha, Nebraska, on 
the 16th of July, was serenaded by a party of enthu- 
siastic admirers, to whom he spoke as follows : 

" I am here to acknowledge the compliment you 
have paid me. I assure you that I value the compli- 
ment. I am well aware that it is not paid to me as 
an individual, but rather as one of the representatives 
of that cause to which }'ou have shown yourselves so 
devoted. (Applause.) It is a cause, my fellow citi- 
zens, worthy of your greatest devotion and of your 
highest enthusiasm. It is the cause of free govern- 
ment and constitutional government in this country, 
and I am satisfied, my friends and fellow citizens, from 
the enthusiasm and feeling manifested here to-night 
and elsewhere where I have been, that this cause is 
destined to a great and glorious victory in the next 
election in November. (Great applause.) I feel, my 
fellow citizens, that we are destined to achieve a great 
victory in behalf of our free government and free con- 
stitution. I feel to-day, not alone from this manifes- 
tation, but from all we have seen during the past year 
in the elections where the policy of the radical party 
has been condemned b}' overwhelming majorities of 



SPEECH AT OMAHA. 483 

people of the United States — (cheers) — and notwith- 
standing this condemnation by the people, these reck- 
less people, who achieved power upon a totally differ- 
ent issue from that ■which is now before the people, 
have in defiance of the popular will, in defiance of the 
votes of the people, of whom they were simply the 
representatives, urged forward these measures to a com- 
pletion in the hope that they could bind the hands of 
the people of this country and wrest from them the 
power forever. (Applause.) Yes, my fellow citizens, 
they have by these measures put under foot all the 
people of our race in ten of the Southern States ; they 
have bound a million of people to the earth with their 
bayonets, and they have put on the top of them this 
hideous black barbarism — (applause) — and, my fellow 
citizens, feeling that they have lost the confidence of 
the white race, both North and South, they propose to 
overcome the charg-es cast ao;ainst them at the North 
in the free States during the last year by the minority 
of the South, whom they have made supreme over the 
white race there, and the question comes up for your 
decision — for the decision of the whole of the people 
of this country — will you permit a minority in both 
s'ections composed of the white race. (Cheers.) That 
race, my fellow citizens, that glorious race of people 
whose history is the record of intellectual progress 
among mankind, the only race that have ever shown 
themselves capable of establishing and maintaining free 
government. (A voice. The Blair famih', I suppose.) 
The Blair famil}^ will be found on the side of the white 
race. (Cheers.) The Blair family can never be de- 



4^6 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

terred from taking that stand by any man who wishes 
to assail the fair white race of this country by a mix- 
ture with the blacks. (Applause.) My fellow citi- 
zens, it is not my intention to detain you by any length- 
ened remarks. (Cries of ' Go on.') I knew very well 
that what I had to say would not please a certain set 
of people, and I will say further that I did not intend 
to please them. (Loud cheers.) If any one is dis- 
pleased that we, the Democrats, intend to restore the 
government and the constitution, they may make thel? 
decrees now, for I tell you that after November next you 
will not be able to hear one of them speak. (Applause.) 
But I am for giving them the largest liberty of speech. 
I do not intend nor desire that they should be gagged as 
they are now endeavorins" to s-as; eiij-ht millions of our 
people in the South. I do not think it will be the 
policy of the Democratic party when it comes into 
power and re-establishes the government to proscribe 
free speech anywhere in the country. It has always 
been their policy to give the largest liberty to all men 
to use the most perfect freedom of speech, for Avithout 
it we cannot maintain our fi'ee institutions. But these 
things are exceedingly distasteful to our Radical breth- 
ren. Throughout the South, they put the gag in the 
mouth of those people whom they have trod under 
the military heel. Men are arrested, thrown into 
prison and tried by military commissions, in defiance 
of those constitutional guarantees of the rights of free 
speech, right of trial by jury and the right to be tried 
before his peer and the judicial tribunal for any alleged 
offence. Where are those rights now? They have 



SPEECH AT LEAVENAYORTH. 487 

been stilled, trodden down, and yet we find men in 
this coimtry who can stand up and defend those acts 
of atrocity. (Cheers.) My fellow citizens, I thank 
you for your attentive audience. This is a gratifying- 
spectacle to any man ^vho loves liberty and the consti- 
tution. This enthusiasm is a sure harbinger of our 
success next November. (Cheers.) And that success, 
under the lead of the distinguished gentleman who 
has been chosen by a Democratic convention as your 
candidate for the Presidency, is certain to restore to 
you the constitution handed down to you by your 
fathers. Gentlemen, I again thank you. (Cries of 
' Go on.') I find it impossible, my fellow citizens, to 
make my voice reach the confines of this immense 
crowd, and, thanking you from my heart for the kind- 
ness which you have shown me to-night — thanking you 
still more for the enthusiasm you have shown for that 
cause in which I am now engaged along with you, I 
now retire." (Loud cheers.) 

At Leavenworth, Kansas, on the 31st of July, 
18 G8, General Blair addressed the State Democratic 
Convention and the citizens generally assembled in 
mass-meeting, as follows : 

" Fellow-Citizens of Kansas : I congratulate my- 
self on my good fortune in having to address so large 
and enthusiastic an audience as I now behold. I do 
not assume to myself that tliis is q, personal compli- 
ment to me. I am too well aware that, on the contra- 
ry, your presence here to night is rather due to your 
devotion to . the great cause in which we all are en- 
gaged, and in that sense I accept it as a greater compli- 



488 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

ment than if it was a mere personal ovation. The 
cause to which we are devoted, and of which I am one 
of your representatives, is one worthy of your most 
profound devotion. It is a cause in which the en- 
thusiasm which I see here to-night, so far as I have 
observed, has prevailed throughout the countrj'. It is 
the cause of popular rights, the cause of civil govern- 
ment, the cause of constitutional liberty. It is the 
cause, the worthiest of all for which man has arrayed 
himself in times past, and it will become you — it will 
become all of us — to evince our devotion to that cause 
which has showered upon the nation so many blessings 
since its foundation. Tliis cause is in peril ; this cause 
has received from the party in power the most violent 
shock ; it has been undermined, and is almost on the 
point of being overthrown. But the jjeople of the 
country are rallying to defend this cause, the holiest 
and best in the world, and in their might I confide, in 
their strength I am willing to abide. They alone can 
rescue this nation from the impending peril, and it is 
for you, and for all citizens of this country who love 
democratic institutions, to come up as one man and 
sustain the best and holiest cause in the world. (Ap 
plause.) I do not speak merely empt}^ rhetoric on this 
subject. I could advert, and I will advert, to the par- 
ticular transactions by which this cause has been 
brought into peril. I call your attention to the aggres- 
sions which have been made by the Kadical party, call- 
ing themselves Kepublicans, upon the fundamental 
prini:iples of our Government, those great, underlying 
principles on which all civil liberty depends. They 



SPEECH AT LEAVENWORTH. 48 S 

have sought, by various measures which the Constitu- 
tion has prohibited, to entrench themselves in power 
in this Government. They, losing the confidence of 
their own race — losing the confidence of the white 
people, have sought to give the powder in a portion of 
the States of this Union to another element — the black 
race — hoping, after losing the confidence of the white 
race, to maintain and perpetuate their supremacy by 
giving political power in ten States of this Union to 
the black race. (Applause, and cries of 'Shame! 
shame ! ') Now, my fellow-citizens, I take the broad 
ground that the white race is the only race in the 
world that has showm itself capable of maintaining 
free institutions and a free government — (Applause); 
that nowdiere, in an}* country or at any time, have the 
black people shovvui themselves capable of establishing 
or maintaining a constitutional government, or any 
other kind of government. (Prolonged cheers.) Yet 
the people of the Southern States have been disfran- 
chised, and the ignorant blacks — the same people that the 
Republican party has declared were imbruted by sla- 
very — whom we all know to be ignorant — wdiom we all 
know to be semi-barbarous — whom w^e all know have 
never been capable of creating, establishing, or main- 
taining a free government, are made to predominate 
in all those States. Not only are they made to predomin- 
ate in the Southern States, but the three or four millions 
of semi-barbarous blacks have the entire control of 
those States, and send twenty Senators to the United 
States Senate, while the four millions of white people 
of New York send but t^vo Senators. It would take 



490 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mis- 
souri, and enough of the other great States of the 
Union put together, containing twenty millions of 
white people, to counterbalance the three or four mil- 
lion blacks in the South ; so that the negroes are not 
only put above the white people of the South, but 
above the white people of the North also, and three or 
four millions of blacks are made equal in the Senate of 
the United States to more than twenty millions of the 
free white people of the North. (Cheers, and cries of 
' shame.') Fellow-citizens, we all very well know that 
this is a political trick to keep what is known as 
the Radical party in power. They don't believe in 
it themselves. They voted it down in the State of 
Kansas by 10,000 majority, but notwithstanding the 
people have voted down negro suffrage in this State, 
your two Senators and Representatives still insist upon 
sustaining the State governments erected on the negro 
vote of the South. You don't understand the danger 
in which our institutions are from the i<2;norant blacks 
and vagabond carpet-baggers of the South. (Prolonged 
applause, and cries of ' Yes, we do ; and we'll save the 
country yet.') The people have never assented to these 
so-called reconstruction acts. In the election of 1866, 
so far from presenting that issue, they dodged it — they 
presented an entirely different issue. The issue they 
submitted then was what is known as the fourteenth 
amendment to the Federal Constitution, which con- 
ceded to all the States the right to regulate suf- 
frage for themselves. That was the issue upon 
which the last Conjrressional election was lield. 



SPEECH AT LEAVENWORTH. 491 

After tliey had attained power by admitting the doc- 
trines on which the Democratic party alwajs stood, 
they went to work to disfranchise the white people of 
the South and enfranchise the blacks, denying to the 
States the risjhts which were contained in the Four- 
teenth amendment. As soon as they showed their 
hands, the elections of 1867 declared against them. 
In New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Califor- 
nia, Oregon, Connecticut, and in enough States to carry 
the election, the people decided against them. But the 
Senators and Representatives from those States re- 
fused to obey the will of the people. They put it at 
defiance, and went on with their reconstruction ; and 
now declare they have fixed it, and that it is not 
in the power of the people to undo what they have 
done. And because in a letter I ^\Tote pending the 
nominations in New York, I took the ground that the 
will of the people must be executed, they proclaimed 
me a ' revolutionist ' anxious to reinstate the rebellion. 
The idea that any one should undertake to undo what 
has been done by tliis great Congress — this Rump, this 
fragmentary Congress — (cheers) — who got into power 
by deceiving the people on false issues, is monstrous in 
their virtuous e}'es. After their action has been con- 
demned by 10,000 in Kansas, by 50,000 in New York, 
by as many in Ohio, by 30,000 in Michigan, and by 
overwhelming majorities of the people wherever there 
has been an expression of their will, it is revolution to 
favor the execution of the will of the people — Frank 
Blair is a 'revolutionist' and wants to inaugurate an- 
other rebellion ! (Cheers and laughter.) I say the 



492 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

Southern States were never out of the Union — that is 
the doctrine we hold to and fought for four }ears ; but 
now the Radical party has taken tlie exact position 
that Jeff. Davis and other leaders of secession took at 
the commencement of the war. (Applause and cries 
of 'that's so.') I tell you I have no animosity toward 
the negroes, and those who are pretending to be their 
friends are their worst enemies. Every one knows, 
from my history, that when the negroes were in slavery 
I was an advocate for their emancipation. I advocated 
it at the worst times, and in the worst places. I ad- 
vocated it when the present pale-faced Radicals of Mis- 
souri did not dare to lift up their heads. (Prolonged 
cheers.) And now I say that unless the negroes sub- 
mit to the intelligent guidance of the powerful white 
race, their fate will be that of the Indians — they will 
be exterminated. The negroes can only be happy and 
prosperous as long as they are guided by the intelli- 
gence of the white race. (Cheers.) Whenever it is 
sought to disfranchise the intelligence of the country 
and make it subordinate to the ignorance of the coun- 
try — whenever it is sought to subordinate the white 
race of the countrv to the black barbarism of the 
negro — the prosperity of the country is at an end. 
(Applause and cries of 'that's so.') 

" But I come back to the proposition with which 
I started, that the Radical party has done these things 
in defiance of the will of the people. Have the people 
ever indorsed negro suffrage ? (Never.) Did you not 
condemn it in this State ? Was it not condemned in 
all the States of the Union at the last election ? and 



SPEECH AT LEAVENWORTH. 493 

shall the Etidical party persist in pressing it upon tlie 
people, that it shall be the rule? And when, as I 
have already stated, I said in New York, that if the 
Democratic party should carry these elections ; if the 
people should elect a Democratic President, this pre- 
tended reconstruction should be undone ; and if these 
miserable carpet-baggers in the Senate were in the way 
of its being done^ the people will find a way to execute 
their will ; those miserable creatures who have under- 
taken to forestall the poj^ular will, say that any one 
who undertakes to execute the will of the people is a 
revolutionist. (Applause.) Look at the attitude of 
these men. Who are the revolutionists? Who has 
put at defiance the popular will? Who has taken 
away the powers of the Executive as granted to him 
by the Constitution? Who has curtailed the jurisdic- 
tion of the Supreme Court of the United States ? Who 
has done all this ? Why the Radical party. (Cheers 
and cries of ' That's so.') Who has put ten States of 
this Union under martial law in time of profound peace? 
The Radical party in Congress. Who has taken away 
from the President the constitutional powers granted 
him as Commander-in-Chief of the army and conferred 
it on their candidate for the Presidency ? The Radi- 
cal party. Who hold eight millions of white people 
of the South pinned to the earth with bayonets ? The 
Radical party. General Grant was selected as the 
candidate of the party because they knew they were 
beaten on their principles, and because he alone, with 
his great personal popularity, was supposed to be able 
to arrest the tide that was about to overwhelm them ; 



494 LIFE OF FPtANCIS P. BLAIK, JR. 

because witli the almost omnipotent power now given 
Lim in ten States of this Union, they thought he could 
control the votes to their own advantage. Is this man, 
who has bayonets at the throats of eight or ten mil- 
lions of the people, the proper representative of the 
people? (Not much.) And are those who seek to 
turn aside those bayonets and give the law and the 
Constitution control, revolutionists'? I tell you now 
all their attempts to subjugate this people will be over- 
thrown. The success of the Democratic party at the 
coming election is foregone. It is ordained of Heaven. 
It is a thing already consummated almost, because the 
people of this country are not the men to surrender 
their liberties. (Never, never.) Nor can the eminent 
services or prestige of General Grant mislead them. 
(Applause.) I desire to speak of General Grant with 
the greatest respect for his services to his country. I 
shall never allow myself to speak of him otherwise 
than with the greatest respect. I don't think we gain 
any advantage by misrepresenting him or his services. 

" A Voice — We have not heard from him yet. 

"General Blair — No, and you are not likely to 
hear from him — (applause) — but as he is a candidate 
for the highest position in the Avorld, he is subjected to 
a fair criticism on his conduct and languao-e. I caU 
your attention to the report made by General Grant 
when sent by President Johnson to the South to inves- 
tigate the condition of affairs there. He then stated 
that the people of the South had submitted to the 
terms imposed upon them by the Government, and 
that they were fitted to return to the rights of citizens* 



SPEECH AT LEAVENWORTH. 495 

in the Union. Since that time he has seen proper to 
change his attitude on this question. I do not impugn 
his motives, but we are all at liberty to look at the 
facts. When the Radicals were keeping the States out 
he recommended their admission. I know very Avell 
from General Grant's former position that he has no 
amity for the negro. Neither has General Sherman 
nor General Sheridan. They have no hatred towards 
the people of the South. Look at the terms General 
Sherman gave Johnston at the surrender in North 
Carolina. It all goes to show that these military lead- 
ers, who are all now arrayed against the Democracy, 
in their hearts believe in the doctrines of the Democrat- 
ic party. They did then and they do now. But I 
will tell you the secret — what has brought them to the 
Radical party. It is their military instinct, which tells 
them that the Radical party is in favor of a despotism 
in this country, and without having any affinity for the 
negro, or hatred for the white people of the South, they 
felt that the Radicals were in favor of erecting a 
despotism, and they knew full well that that would give 
additional consequence to military men. That is the 
secret of these men arraying themselves against Democ- 
rac}", against constitutional liberty, and against the 
civil institutions of our country. (Continued a])plau3e.) 
We have honored these men as no nation ever hon- 
ored its heroes before. We have given them the 
loftiest positions, but thej are not content; they 
would make themselves dictators over all the country. 
And now is the time for you to shoAv yourselves as 
ready and capable of prostrating these would-be dicta- 



496 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

tors as you were in prostrating the rebellion. (We 
are ready.) I know you are ready. I know that 
while you cherish the services they performed for the 
Government, you are not inclined to surrender your 
own birthrights — the birthright of a citizen and free- 
man. (Applause.) 

" A Voice — What about the Copperheads ? 

" General Blair — I think these Radicals have made 
the name ' Copperhead ' respectable by their great 
treason against the Government. I think that what- 
ever of prejudice may have existed against those who 
were called ' Copperheads ' during the war, because of 
their sympathy for a people who, however wrong, have 
made themselves memorable for all time, will have 
been forgotten and their sins will have been forgiven, 
when the Radicals, who have undertaken to destroy 
the liberties of the whole people, to subvert our insti- 
tutions, to put down the gi-eat principles upon which 
civil liberty alone can be sustained, who sought to per- 
petuate their power by appealing to the ignorance of a 
degraded race of beings, will be held up as examples 
for continual execration. (Applause.) The Radical 
party will be overthrown. The people are in no tem- 
per to submit to the domination of a party who seek 
to maintain themselves bv callinn; to their aid this isr- 
norant and barbarous race of men. (Applause.) I 
ma}^ be accused of appealing to your prejudices. I do 
not appeal to your prejudices. I appeal to history. I 
appeal to that which ought to guide every statesman. 
It is impossible to make a nation prosperous by giv- 
ing the reins of power into the hands of a race of 



SPEECH AT LEAVENWORTH. 497 

people who are incapable of guiding any nation. You 
have repudiated that doctrine — (Yes, and w411 do it 
again) — and you ought to do it forever. (Aj^plause.) 
A man is unworthy himself, if he is classed as a white 
man, who wall put the black man over his own race ; 
and no one but a demagogue would do it. If the Kad- 
icals felt secure in their position they would be content 
to appeal to their own race of people for support, to 
the people who had created this Government, who 
maintained it and carried it forward to unexampled 
prosperity. They would be content to appeal to the 
mtelligenco o " he white race. But no, they know they 
have forfeited the confidence of the white race. They 
are conspiring against the most cherished institutions 
of our country. They are giving the franchise to that 
ignorant race whom they know to be incapable, and at 
the same time, are disfranchising the intelligent white 
people of the country, and their doom is sealed. (Ap- 
plause.) But fellows-citizens, there are others here from 
Avhom it is your right to hear, (Cries of ' Go on,' 
' go on.'] There are gentlemen here who have been 
but recently nominated for high positioiis in your State 
— gentlemen who I believe will be elected by the peo- 
ple of the State — and they have a right to be heard, 
and you have a right to (ixpect that I will give way 
for them. Having claimed your attention for the 
length of time I have, T now surrender it to men from 
your own State, after thanking you for your very kind 
attention to me." 

At St. Joseph, a few days later, in reply to a sere- 
nade from the citizens, Gen. Blair said : 
32 



498 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

"Gentleme:n' of St. Joseph: In addressing t"he 
large and enthusiastic audiecce before me I shall not 
insult you by calling you ' fellows,' or by advising you 
to throw a man in the river, who happens to differ in 
opinion regarding the sentiments expressed, as I under- 
stand has been done by a distinguished military gentle- 
man in this place upon a recent occasion. I believe 
this to be a free country, and that the people will trea,t 
those with respect who respect the people. Our ob- 
jection to the principles of our adversaries in this 
great political campaign is that they assume too dicta- 
torial a tone towards the people. They denounce me 
as a revolutionist — say that I wish to inaugurate an- 
other rebellion — because I say it is time for the rule 
of the bayonet to be checked. (Great applause.) The 
people of the State of Missouri and the peoj^le of the 
whole country, are tired of being bound to obey the 
dictates of their military commanders. We believe it 
is time for the will of the people to be carried out. 
This will be done. (A voice — ' We'll fix that in No- 
vember.') Yes, we will settle that in November, and 
we will do it peaceably by the ballot. The people are 
now fully aroused and none of these men will dare to 
defy the will of the people. Those who attempt it 
will come to grief, and it is time they should come to 
grief Unless checked they will go on until they es- 
tablish neo-ro suffrasre over this State and the Northern 
States, as they already have in ten States of this 
Union. They will extend a military despotism over 
all the States and negro supremacy, as far as the peo- 
ple will allow it. This fragmentary Congress, and the 



SPEECH AT ST. JOSEPH. 499 

carpet-baggers that have got into the Senate under the 
auspices of this Rump, have ah'eady attempted to de- 
grade the white men of all the States to a condition of 
inferiority to the negro. This is the main issue. The 
people have decided in all those States where they 
have enjoyed the privilege of a free vote, that this 
thing cannot be ; and I tell you that the will of the 
people shall be carried out in spite of the designs of 
these ambitious men who have trampled the Constitu- 
tion under their feet, and a Kepublican form of govern- 
ment shall be guaranteed to the people of the South- 
ern as well as of the Northern States. But we are told 
that even if the Democratic party elect their President, 
and a majority of the House of Kepresentatives, that 
these carpet-baggers who assume to constitute a ma- 
jority of the Senate, will defeat legislation, and will 
impose this ignorant and semi-barbarous race of negroes 
upon the country as the superior of the white man. 
Let them dare to do it, and they wdll find that the more 
than one million majority of voters who are opposed 
to this scheme will make it impossible for them to per- 
petuate such an atrocious outrage upon American citi- 
zens. The people have risen in their might every 
where, from Maine to California, and have by their 
votes, said they will not have this negro supremacy 
kept up in this country. They will not be shaken in 
this purpose to turn aside the bayonet that is still kept 
pointed at the throats of the white men of the South. 
Neither will the Radical party in its hopeless minority, 
be able to defeat the will of the people. I feel an 
abiding confidence in the success of the Democratic 



500 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

party to-day, "because it is riglit. Thanking you, gen- 
tlemen, for your very kind and attentive audience, I 
Lid 3'ou farewell." 

The nomination of Gen. Blair has given entire satis- 
faction to all Conservative men throughout the country. 
His high qualities of head and heart, together with the 
brilllaut military rejDutation won by him during the 
war, have made him a favorite with all. In place of 
any estimate of our own, we subjoin the following 
summary of his character, taken from the Buffalo 
Courier^ of July 10th. It is so just and complete that 
we prefer it to any comments of our own : 

" What moderate, discerning, patriotic Republican, 
conscious of the mediocrity of Grant in all that con- 
cerns affairs of State, and of the inane shallowness of 
Colfax in every thing, can ignore the services of 
'Young Frank Blair' in Missouri? He came, so to 
speak, from the political loins of Andrew Jackson, who 
sent for his father, Francis P. Blair, senior, to edit the 
Jacksouian organ at Washington, at the time when 
Calhoun and the nullifiers had struck hands with the 
consolidationists to drive ' Old Hickory ' from his post 
as the steadfast defender of the Union and the laws. 
Mr. Blair, the father, still lives in honored competence 
at Silver Springs, Maryland, just outside of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and his farm is yet the political 
homestead of the brothers Frank and Montgomery, 
the latter the valued and trusted cabinet minister of 
Abraham Lincoln; the former the undisputed and 
heroic savior of Missouri from the secession conspiracy. 
Francis P. Blair, Jr., inheriting all the patriotism and 



SKETCH OF GEN. BLAIR. 501 

political sagacity of Lis father, early threw himself 
into the better politics of Missouri. At the outbreak 
of the war he re]3resented the Union element of the 
State in Congress, and by his honesty and regard for 
the rights of adopted as well as native-born citizens, 
had won from the German population of St. Louis a 
confidence which he never betrayed, and which gained 
for the army of the Union a class of its earliest and 
truest soldiers. There is not either an honest Con- 
federate or Federal in Missouri to-day who presumes to 
doubt that, but for young Frank Blaii', the greatest 
State west of the Mississippi river would have gone as 
a unit for secession. We have not at hand the com- 
plete data to make up General Blair's brilliant military 
record. We remember, however, that in one of the 
first months of the war he was at the head of a resri- 
raent he had raised, and assisted in driving Sterling 
Price and the Confederate army beyond the confines of 
Missouri. In August, 18G2, he had earned a brigadier- 
generalship and a prominent place among the leaders 
of that great army of the Southwest which clove the 
heart of the rebellion and at last issued with Sherman 
in the Carolinas. Gen. Frank Blair was thus, from the 
beginning of the war to its end, one of those heroes to 
which the rough school of border warfare gave birth. 
There were few fields, indeed, between St. Louis and 
Kichmond in which he was not a brilliant and promi- 
nent officer. When the great army of the West made 
its triumphal march into Washington at the close of the 
war, he was at the head of one of its most magnificent 
corjps d^armee. He entered the national capital as a 



502 LIFE OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 

conqueror, wliere his fatlier but a short generation be- 
fore had appeared as an obscure but valiant editor 
summoned to do battle with his pen for the Union and 
Constitution. The gallant General, though already 
conscious of his great inherited power in statecraft, 
from the moment of the breaking out of the war 
abandoned the field of politics, except in so far as, to 
cope with the secession wiles of Gov. Claiborne Jack- 
son, the methods of the politician were necessary. It 
was not till the true purposes of the war had been 
perverted and extreme Radicalism had seized on the 
spoils of victory, that we find General Blah' taking 
formal issue with the Radical party. He has since 
been as earnest for the perfect restoration of the Union 
by peaceful and conciliatory measures, as formerly he 
was prompt in its vindication by the sword. In his 
nomination no jDolitical caucus made use of his name 
and fame to serve factional ends. He was the sponta- 
neous choice of both the soldier and civilian elements 
of the Democratic party, and his strength at the West 
will be found to equal that of Governor Seymour in 
the East. The prominent qualities of General Blair 
are sagacity, personal devotion, coolness and daring in 
the field of battle, and that conservative knowledge 
of time and tide which makes him as prompt to resist 
Jacobinism as to oppose secession. lie has also a 
chivalric element in his character which has often 
won him friends out of the ranks of his enemies. 
"Wade Hampton, 'the Southern Murat,' and the 
best soldiers of the Confederate army, now hail his 
nomination with such a heartiness of enthusiasm as 



i 



GLOWING TRIBUTE.j 



/ 



only could come of that respect wliicb springs up be- 
tween brave enemies in hard-fouglit fields. Witb the 
name of Francis P. Blair on our banner, who shall say 
that the Democratic party is not the party of the 
Union? and if service to the country be a test of 
fitness for high office, will our opponents care to put 
Colfax, the plausible speaker, in the scale of com- 
parison with Blair, the "Western soldier." 

. -i 




oe . 
Liie East, 
arc sagacity, pc. 
the field of battle, . 
of time and tide whicli 
Jacobinism as to oppose . 
cliivalric element in Lis clia. 
won Lim friends out of the i. 
Wade ITarapton, 'the Southern 
best soldiers of the Confederate ar. 
nomination with such a heartiness of 



